Star Trek: Warlord, The Straw
by Morphere
Summary: This is the sixth story in the series about the dreadnaught mark II class starship, USS Warlord. Please read, review, and comment. This story got WAY too long to fit my publishing style, so stay tuned for The Straw, part 2!
1. Chapter 1

"Like hell you will!" The smaller statured Colonel Prichard grabbed Captain Bolerov by his left arm as he ran towards the navigation console. The young and thin Ensign Bristol had already stood up to prevent the captain from gaining access. As Prichard spun the captain around to face him, he cocked his left fist backwards and shot it towards Bolerov's chin. The impact threw the large captain's head backwards. He spun around and fell limp to the ground. Shaking out the pain in his middle aged wrist, Prichard oberseved the stunned bridge crew before his eyes came to rest on an equally stunned Commander Kirk. Prichard narrowed his gaze. "I'll take the heat for that. You... lead!" The southern Marine Colonel ordered.

It still took Stephen several precious moments to regather his wits about him. Shaking his head clear, he turned towards Elaine, who was still staring at the unconscious captain. "Lieutenant Davies," Kirk announced, snapping her back to reality, "contact the transporter room and have them beam the captain straight to sickbay. Then, contact the doctor and tell him what happened."

"Aye, Sir," she replied uncertainly. Slowly, she turned around in her seat and began pressing buttons.

Kirk sat down in the captain's seat and took a deep breath while Colonel Prichard sat down next to him. He wasn't going to have the luxury of being nervous. "T'Nia, what's our shield status?"

A quick scan of her screen gave her an immediate answer. "Primary shields holding at fifty-nine percent."

"Mr. Richards, where are they?" Kirk asked, looking for a tactical display on every console and readout he could identify and not finding one within easy viewing range.

"We've been flanked, Commander," Richards replied shaking his head. He hoped the actions of the maverick Marine weren't too late.

"Alright," Kirk replied taking another deep breath. "Tyler, when I tell you, give me full impulse reverse and full burn on the forward starboard and rear port thrusters." He pivoted to T'Nia. "When Tyler moves, put cannon one into the bandit on our port side. Throw in however many torpedoes are necessary to blow it out of this system."

"Aye, aye," Bristol complied, thrilled to finally be doing something.

"Understood, Sir," the vulcan tactical officer replied robotically.

"They're firing again!" Richards announced.

"Tyler, now!" Kirk yelled.

With a pound of his fist, the giant ship shuddered as it lurched backwards and spun to its left. From within the bridge, the crew could actually feel a shaking sensation as the inertial dampeners attempted to compensate for the change in force and direction. As the large, gray bat-like image of the Dominion battle cruiser came into full view of the viewscreen, T'Nia pressed a single button on her tactical panel. Within moments, a long stream of green glowing globes streaked towards the Dominion vessel. For several moments, the globes could be seen impacting the protective blister of the shield surrounding the cruiser. Unfortunately for the Dominion vessel, its shields were no match for the continual pounding of the cannon. The blister quickly collapsed sending the final six green globes into the ship itself, causing several small explosions throughout its hull. 

T'Nia pressed three more buttons on her console, sending three large, purple glowing objects, like small purple suns, towards the damaged Dominion ship. They also impacted squarely on target. The first torpedo tore the cruiser's port wing completely off. The second torpedo flew into the listing underbelly of the cruiser starting a chain of explosions that started at the bottom of the ship and continued through the top. As the engines of the cruiser began a sequence of explosions of their own, the third torpedo slammed into the underside of the rear of the ship, which concluded the overload of their primary power source. The Dominion battle cruiser exploded in a firey ball of yellow and red sparks.

"That's for having the gall to think you could challenge us," Stephen remarked with disdain. The crew's duty now clear, their minds also cleared as they fell back into their Starfleet roles. "Well done, Mister T'Nia." Kirk said with a nod. He leaned forward and rested his chin on his hands. "Mister Bristol, swing us around and line up bandit two. T'Nia, fire when you have a solution."

"Yes, Sir!" Tyler replied with a smile. This was turning out to be fun after all.

"Locking weapons on target now, Sir," T'Nia replied.

"Commander, the other ship is leaving. They're bugging out." Richards remarked, staring at his console.

"What?" Kirk questioned. That was very much unlike the Dominion tactics he was familiar with. "Bristol, give chase. T'Nia, practice your sharpshooting skills. Use pulse phasers to take out any asteroid that gets in our way." The two acknowledged the command and turned back to their stations. With another barely discernable lurch, the Warlord lunged back to forward thrust and pursued the gray cruiser into the asteroid field.

"What's wrong?" the science officer asked?

"The Dominion don't retreat, Commander," Kirk replied flatly. "Something else is going on here." 


	2. Chapter 2

Doctor Rass looked at his wall mounted viewscreen at the battle that was happening in front of him. "By the prophets... why aren't we firing back?" He asked himself. "Are we just going to let them destroy us?" He was about to tap his comm badge to ask what was happening when he heard the telltale etheral meowing sound of a transporter beam in his sickbay. Curious, he walked into the next door room to see Captain Bolerov, laying on one of the medical beds. He barely moved, but let out a quiet moaning sound as his head rolled from one side to the next.

The doctor's comm badge popped. "Bridge to Doctor Rass, come in, doctor." The voice was female.

He tapped his badge. "Rass here. I presume you have an explanation as to why our captain is in my sickbay?" He wandered closer towards the captain.

"Well..." the voice started hesitantly, "um... the Colonel decked him."

The doctor stared incredulously into the room at nothing in particular. "I beg your pardon?"

"It's kind of a long story," she offered, "you might want to restrain him. He tried to order the crew to abandon ship, then he tried to fly the Warlord into one of the Dominion ships."

"Oh?" The doctor blinked several times considering his options. He had already relieved one captain of duty on the Warlord. He wasn't relishing doing that again. "Do we have witnesses to corroborate this story?"

"Well, we were all here. He almost knocked Tyler and me over getting to the controls."

"I see," he said hesitantly. He shook his head. "I can't believe I'm doing this again." He remarked to himself.

"What did you say, doctor?" Elaine asked.

"Uh... nothing. Hang on." He looked up at the ceiling. "Computer, invoke a restraining field around the person in bed three." Briefly, a sparkling bubble of energy surrounded the bed, then disappeared from normal vision. All that was left was a low hum. "Elaine, does anyone suspect some kind of alien influence at work?" He grabbed a tricorder and headed over to the captain's bed. Leaning over, he turned on the bio monitor above the bed and began taking readings.

"I don't think so," she replied cautiously.

He examined the monitors for several seconds. "Increased heart rate, subconscious brain activity is off the charts... what's this?" He asked rhetorically, staring at another readout of the bloodstream.

"What is it, doctor?" Elaine asked through the comm badge.

"Sorry," Rass offered. "He's got quite a substantial amount of alchohol in his blood, even though it's several hours old. I'm seeing increased brainwave activity in his long term memory, too. Initially, I'd say he's in some kind of alchohol-induced psychosis." The captain moaned again. "Tell the commander I'll do a thorough exam on him. In the meantime, tell the commander that he's in charge. I can't release the captain for duty in his current condition."

There was a moment of silence. "Understood, doctor. I'll tell the commander. Bridge out."

Rass shook his head while scratching it. "That makes two captains in less than six months. No one's going to believe this." Doctor Rass adjusted some settings on his tricorder, then made some further adjustments to the wall-mounted readout monitor. "Alright, Captain... let's see what's wrong with you." 


	3. Chapter 3

The large, gray, bat-shaped battle cruiser slid through the asteroid field; purple polaron beams occasionally slicing through rocks endangering it's progress. Occasionally, the gunner found time to fire a shot at the pursuing Starfleet ship. The cruiser dove and banked ever closer to the larger chunks of rock as the Warlord continued its pursuit. The Warlord, nearly twice the size as the cruiser, had a more difficult time maneuvering through the asteroids. Red pulse phaser beams frequently shot from various red rings both atop and underneath the elongated saucer section of the ship taking aim at various spinning and flying rocks as it continued its pursuit of the Dominion vessel.

Inside, the bridge crew couldn't help but move their bodies in concert with the images they saw on the viewscreen as Ensign Bristol continued mirroring the cruiser's movements. The primary shields had already been struck twice by asteroids and subsequently lowered. The occasional strike by a polaron beam also further lowered the shield's staying power. T'Nia had gotten in her fair share of shots as well. The second neutron cannon had been held back, but she managed to secure a few hits with torpedoes while targeting oncoming rocks.

The pursuit had continued for several minutes. The Warlord's primary shields were down to forty percent. The Dominion ship's shields were already down to twenty-seven percent. For some reason, however, it continued to flee. Commander Stephen Kirk scratched his head in confusion. Although he had never been involved in a battle during the Dominion War, he had read plenty of their tactics. The Jem'Hadar simply never fled and never surrendered. Why this ship was running eluded him... especially since no other ships seemed to be in the viscinity. Even the broad-spectrum tachyon burst, designed to identify cloaked vessels, turned up empty.

"Why don't they turn and fight?" Kirk asked rhetorically.

Colonel Prichard turned towards him. "You don't have to be a genius to realize when you're completely outmatched."

Silently, Stephen was grateful to have the Colonel there. Although his methods were suspect, and liable to be the subject of many questions once they got home, Stephen was at a complete loss for alternatives until the Colonel incapacitated the captain. That gave Kirk the freedom to take control without repurcussions from Starfleet. "That shouldn't matter," Kirk countered. "The Jem'Hadar don't think that way. They're bred for combat. They don't retreat and they don't surrender."

"Then perhaps they're not retreating," T'Nia offered from her tactical console without turning around.

"Well, this is a lousy combat strategy," Prichard commented. The viewscreen displayed a rather imposing looking rock over ten times the volume of the Warlord coming up quickly. The image became dizzying as the image spun around then slowly sank away from view. 

The crew let out a collective sigh of relief. "That was awfully close, Tyler," Kirk offered. Another polaron blast streaked past the viewscreen and impacted the shields to the left of the camera. T'Nia responded by sending two torpedoes back towards the cruiser. One torpedo slammed into a neighboring planetoid. The second, however, struck the cruiser's rear shields straight on.

"Nice shot!" Commander Richards offered. "Its aft shields are down to eightteen percent. We've caused some minor damage to the impulse engines and taken one of the polaron cannons offline."

Kirk shook his head. "This just isn't right. They're not fighting and they don't run. So if they're not fighting or retreating, they're either leading us into a trap of some kind... or... " as if divine inspiration had claimed part of his mind, another more sinister alternative came to him. His eyes bulged. "Oh, no..." he whispered. Instinctively, Stephen stood up and stared at the viewscreen.

"What is it?" Kenyon asked.

"Tyler!" Stephen's voice sounded distressed. "Get us out of here! Get us back to Cardassia Prime... hurry! Go, go, go! T'Nia, clear a path for him." He sank back down into the captain's seat. He began shaking his head slowly.

"What are you thinking?" Prichard asked him.

Kirk turned to face Richards first. "I think we just screwed up."

A look of shock came over Richard's face, as well as the rest of the crew. "What do you mean?"

"I think they're just trying to keep us busy. They're a diversion... and we fell for it... and we left our peace delegation completely undefended on Cardassia Prime." A sense of defeat washed over the crew.

With agonizing slowness, the Warlord made its way out of the asteroid field. The Dominion ship eventually disappeared from sensors. Prichard gently grabbed Kirk by his shoulder. "I get the awful feeling you might be right," he admitted, "and I'm a jackass for not considering that possibility. However, I'd be an even bigger jackass if I didn't remind you I have two ships out there that need to be brought back in. I'd hate to leave them out here with a ticked off Dominion battle cruiser."

"Oh, crap!" Kirk exclaimed. "I completely forgot. Tyler, get us clear of this debris and sit tight. The Manta Ray should be in the system now. Once we get them aboard, get us back to Cardassia Prime. I think we're already too late to be of any help there, but we need to try." 


	4. Chapter 4

The three person crew of the Sting Ray watched anxiously as the two large, bat-shaped battle cruisers closed in on the Warlord. At first, Lieutenant Gannon smiled eagerly as the two Dominion ships fired a number of purple beams at their home ship, expecting a devastating reprisal from the Warlord. His smile quickly evaporated as the return fire didn't come. Instead, all three faces showed signs of grim concern as the two cruisers continued an unrelented assault on the four-engined figure between them.

"Sir, they're flanking the Warlord!" The corporal behind him screamed.

Cleaning out his ear with his finger, Gannon partly turned around. "I see that, Corporal," he announced in frustration.

"The Warlord isn't firing back!" the corporal added.

Gannon turned completely around to face his communications specialist. "Have you always had this flair for the obvious?"

The corporal looked down. "Sorry, Sir."

Gannon shook his head. The three of them had been through initial training together, but this was their first official combat sortie. Although it didn't surprise him that they were panicked, it was still frustrating. He felt like he was babysitting more than commanding. "Just stick with your post, Corporal." He turned back around to watch as the two Dominion starships continue their attack without rebuttal.

"Should we go help them?" his tactical specialist asked.

The Lieutenant was truly confused by the Warlord's strategy. It was now officially flanked and had been fired upon for several seconds without even attempting to take evasive action. Eventually, Gannon shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. "I guess so."

"They ARE our ride, after all, Sir." the corporal to his left commented.

"Yeah, yeah." Gannon powered up the impulse engines. "Phasers still charged?"

"Full power, Sir," he answered.

"Well, if nothing else, we'll give them something else to shoot at." Gannon offered. The elongated form of the Sting Ray slid out from behind a floating asteroid and gained speed as it powered its way towards the conflict. "Fire as soon as you have a clean shot."

"Which one am I firing at?" the corporal asked.

Gannon shot him a sarcastic look. "Does it really matter?"

The corporal acquiesced. "I guess not."

The three were pleasantly surprised when they watched the Warlord backup and pivot towards the cruiser to their right. A long stream of green spheres rocketed from the side of its hull they couldn't see and impacted the front of the cruiser. From behind, they could see part of the top of the battle cruiser begin to fold in on itself. The cruiser listed upwards from the impact. Moments later, three torpedoes shot from the underside of the saucer section and impacted the aft section of the underside of the cruiser, causing the impulse engines facing them to explode.

Gannon put the Sting Ray to a full stop, then reversed course. "We're just gonna back up here and enjoy the fight from the cheap seats." The cruiser exploded in a shower of sparks seconds later. The three cheered as Gannon announced, "And that's what happens when you mess with Big Daddy!" The three slapped each other's hands in celebration.

"Check it out," the tactical specialist pointed to the front window. "The other one's chickening out." They watched as the remaining battle cruiser blasted its way deeper into the asteroid field with the Warlord in pursuit.

Gannon fired up the impulse engines and spun the Sting Ray around to follow the Warlord. "May as well tag along," he announced. "That was kind of fun to watch." 


	5. Chapter 5

Lieutenant Davies turned to face the commander. "The Sting Ray is now aboard," she announced with a sigh of relief. The Manta Ray had already docked, but because the port nacell strut had been damaged during their cat-and-mouse game with the Dominion cruiser, the Sting Ray was incapable of retracting it. In the end, Lieutenant Gannon assumed the manual controls and forced the ship into the docking tunnel, which snapped the strut off and damaged the opening built into the rear of the Warlord. Despite the intense drama, no one had been hurt. The rest of the bridge crew let out a collective sigh of relief, especially their guest, Colonel Sam Prichard.

As soon as the Sting Ray was safely aboard, Stephen quickly turned to Ensign Bristol, Warlord's primary navigator. "Mr. Bristol, get us back to Cardassia Prime... emergency speed."

"Course already laid in, Sir." Tyler announced.

"Engage." Kirk ordered, pointing at the viewscreen. The stars streaked around the viewscreen as though caught in an invisible tornado. As the streaking of the stars slowed, they elongated into long white, yellow, and red lines. As they continued to stretch, a bright light formed in the middle of the screen. With a flash, the light vanished and the stars resumed their pinpoint shapes, flying off the sides of the screen with incredible speed. Commander Kirk turned to Colonel Prichard, who was already standing to leave. "Heading off to check your men?"

Prichard nodded. "Yep. I suppose I'll have some questions to answer before this is all over." He headed towards the turbolift doors as everyone watched. As the colonel approached the doors, they slid open silently. He turned back around. "If you need anyone else slugged, just give me a holler," he said with a smile and a wink. The doors slid closed behind him.

Kirk blinked several times staring at the turbolift doors. "There's something you don't hear very often on a starship," he said, letting out another sigh. A few members of the bridge crew chuckled nervously, not sure if they should be relaxing their guard. 

The other turbolift door opened and Chief Engineer, Lieutenant Tom Kelly, stepped out. "Hey, everyone... what's going on?" He asked in his trademark Australian accent. He had watched the battle from a screen in the engineering main diagnostics room. Frustrated that his ship had received several damaging shots without any form of return fire, Tom took it upon himself to head to the bridge to find out why.

"I'll catch you up in a sec, Tom," Kirk said, sitting back down in the captain's seat. Tom headed for his auxiliary engineering station opposite the system analysis console. Stephen turned to partly face Elaine's position. "Elaine, try to contact our delegation."

"Aye, Sir," she said obediently. She turned around and began pressing buttons. By now, she was beginning to agree with the commander. This was obviously a ploy of some kind. As she put her earpiece in and began the all-hail, part of her knew it was in vein.

Kirk turned to T'Nia. "T'Nia, keep the aft weapons charged. We might get company on the way back."

Looking calmly over her shoulder, she nodded. "Understood, Sir." With several console commands, four torpedo tubes and eight phaser arrays took general aim behind them.

"Kenyon," Commander Richards had been watching Kirk like a hawk since Bolerov was 'incapacitated'. "Throw out tachyon bursts at irregular intervals. If someone's following us, I want to know."

"You got it, Commander." Richards turned around and began the sequence that would generate a burst of tachyon waves that would surround the ship for several thousand kilometers.

"Tyler," Kirk began again, turning back to front. "How long till we reach Cardassia?"

Tyler tapped his console four times. "Thirty-one minutes, Commander."

Kirk nodded. "Okay, I'm heading to the ready room for a few minutes. Tom come with me and I'll catch you up. Richards, you have the bridge. If anything happens, contact me." Kirk stood up and headed for the ready room with Tom following closely behind.

"You got it, Sir." Kenyon replied. Somehow, he wasn't quite as thrilled about being in charge as he once was. 


	6. Chapter 6

The door slid shut behind Lieutenant Kelly as he took a seat in front of the desk of the small room. Kirk sat behind the desk, tried to look authoritative and official for a moment, then gave up as he put his head on the desk.

Kelly was content to simply let Stephen gather himself. Something interesting must have happened. He made a mental note to spend more time at the auxiliary console on the bridge so he wouldn't miss anything else important.

Kirk let out several deep breaths before finally lifting his head again. This time, Stephen threw himself into the back of the chair and leaned his head back to the ceiling. "Oh, my gosh," he exclaimed softly as he stretched out his arms. 

"I miss all the fun stuff," Tom finally commented.

"Sorry," Stephen replied, sitting back up. "I just needed a sec to take it all in."

"Sounds intense."

Kirk's eyes grew wide staring into space while he remembered the previous events. "You could say that." He took several more deep breaths. "The captain lost it on the bridge. First, he just stood there doing nothing. Then, he tried to order everyone to abandon ship. THEN, he said he was going to fly us into one of the battle cruisers."

Tom's eyes grew wide. "Wow... wait... I never heard any order to abandon ship."

"Yeah, that was weird. He actually punched some buttons on the communications console... knocked Elaine down in the process, too. I think he was trying to hit the shipwide page, but it's on the other side of the console. It was all just really strange."

Tom shook his head. "Where's the captain now?"

"He's in sickbay. The doc's looking after him. I think he was drunk."

"I didn't think you could get drunk in this day and age." Tom commented incredulously. Most of him believed what Stephen was saying. Still, there had been enough funny business recorded in other starship logs to encourage him to be cautious and gather as much information as possible.

"You gotta try pretty hard." Kirk rubbed his temples.

"Maybe I'll check on the captain later," Tom offered. Part of him really wanted to see the captain. They had their differences, but overall Tom had nothing but praise for him. The other part of him wanted to see how Stephen would react.

Stephen responded exactly the way Tom hoped he would. "Yeah, I was going to do that myself later."

"How are you holding up?" Lieutenant Kelly asked, cocking his head. He could tell Stephen was tired. Part of his doubts had eased with Kirk's reaction to Tom visiting. With that, he could tell that his crewmember, his superior officer, and his friend, was struggling

"I'm a little stressed." Stephen answered, looking Tom straight in the eye. "That was a lot of drama to go through and it's not over yet."

"Yeah, what was that all about?" Tom asked, remembering the battle. "I mean, why did that other ship leave? Why did we come out here, anyway?"

"I got a distress signal a couple of days ago while when I beamed down. I guess it was a trick. Anyway, the signal said to come out here. We did... and we got ambushed. I'm not sure why they attacked, then left like that." Stephen shook his head and stared intensely at the desktop, struggling to come up with reasons. Truth be told, he didn't understand, either. "Maybe they were supposed to ambush us... maybe just try to be a distraction... maybe just test our capabilities." He shrugged. "We didn't get a chance to ask them." He smiled weakly.

Tom smiled back. "They didn't seem a talkative bunch. So... what are you expecting back at Cardassia?"

Stephen shrugged again. "I have no idea. I've just got a really bad feeling about Picard and his group." Stephen's tone changed as he became more official. "How quickly do those regenerative shields 'regenerate'?"

Lieutenant Kelly thought a moment. "As long as the generator isn't getting pounded on, it should only take ten or twelve minutes to go from nothing to full power. It'll a lot less time than that, considering there was still some shield power left."

"Okay." Kirk was already thinking about what might be waiting for them back at Cardassia Prime. "How long before we can safely fire the port cannon?"

"Yeah, that..." The whole neutron cannon issue was still a sore spot with Tom. He almost was put on report for a problem he had nothing to do with. "Near as we can figure it takes about a half hour for the trellium plating to discharge the ionization."

Kirk blinked. "That'll be cutting it close."

Tom nodded. "You planning on going in with guns blazing?"

"I plan on going in with guns ready." Kirk answered, staring intently at his chief engineer.

"Have you contacted Starfleet yet?"

Stephen shook his head. "Not yet. If I'm right, what we just went through was just a diversion. The real story is a half hour away. Hopefully, I'm wrong... the Dominion is a fluke thing and the Cardassians will deal with it. We'll beam Admiral Picard or Admiral Callis aboard and they can temporarily take command of the ship until Captain Bolerov recovers. If I'm right..."

"If you're right," Tom interrupted, "we're flying into a hornet's nest." 


	7. Chapter 7

"Captain's log, stardate 57027.4, Commander Kirk reporting. Good grief... where to start. Okay, the distress call I got on my comm badge was a fake. We flew into a trap of two Dominion warships. One isn't going home, the other one ran away. We're heading back into the Cardassian system to see if the peace delegation is okay. So far, they're not answering our hails... no one is. We're going in under red alert and expecting the worst."

"Elaine, is the signal being jammed?" Commander Kirk asked from the captain's chair.

She shook her head. "No. Near as I can figure, there's just nothing on the other end. It's like they were turned off."

"Or broken," Kirk added. "And you can't raise anyone from the Cardassian government either?"

"No, Sir. They're getting our signal, though. They're just not answering."

Stephen rubbed his face. "Okay... keep trying. Someone HAS to be home."

"Commander," Tyler interrupted, "we've reached the Cardassian home system."

Kirk nodded. "Break us out of warp. Full impulse to Cardassia Prime."

"Aye, aye, Sir." With a flash of white light on the forward viewscreen, the stars stopped their normal streaking movements and appeared to stand still.

"Richards, are you getting anything or anyone at all?"

Kenyon looked up from his sensor console and shook his head. "Zip. Not a single contact. Long range sensors are still picking up people, though. It's not like they're not there."

"They're just not talking," Kirk added. He considered the viewscreen through narrowed eyes, as though he'd be able to spot something with his eyes that the sensors couldn't see. "This place has turned into a very unfriendly neighborhood. Kenyon... as soon as we're in range, I want you to scan the daylights out of Cardassia Prime. Get everything you can... every square centimeter, especially around the capital city."

"I can do that, Sir." Commander Richards replied. He cocked his head. "What do you think is down there?"

Kirk shook his head. "I'm just playing a hunch." Silently, he said a prayer.

After another fifteen minutes had passed, an almost infinite amount of time when no one knows what to expect, they rounded Cardassia III for a final approach to Cardassia Prime. "We'll reach Cardassia Prime in four minutes, Sir." Ensign Bristol announced. "Standard orbit?"

Kirk nodded. "This is really peculiar. It's like the lights are on, but nobody's home."

"Oh, there are lots of people home," Kenyon corrected. "There's a lot of activity going on around the government building. None of it has a human biosign, though. There's something else..." his voice tapered off as he continued pressing buttons on his console. Richards then stood up and turned to face Kirk with a raised eyebrow. "There's a shield around the government building. If our people are in there, or far enough underground, I won't be able to see them."

Kirk's eyes narrowed. Slowly, he moved his vision from Richards to the viewscreen. "Enough games." He announced quietly. "T'Nia, lock on the government building as soon as it's in range. Davies, open me a channel to the Cardassian government."

"Aye, Sir... but I've already tried that." She started pressing buttons to establish the link. "They aren't responding."

His voice lowered. "I don't need them to respond. I just need them to listen."

"Channel open, Sir." She said, her voice wavering a bit with nervousness.

Stephen took a deep breath. "This is Commander Stephen Kirk of the Starfleet dreadnaught Warlord. We've lost communications with our peace delegation and need to speak with them now. We have reason to believe they are being held against their will..."

"We're getting a reply, Sir." Lieutenant Davies interrupted. The image of a familiar Cardassian official filled the forward viewscreen. It was Ross Tegril. In the space of just a few hours, he looked like he had aged years.

"Commander Kirk, where is your captain?" Tegril asked accusingly.

For an instant, Stephen was at a loss of what to say. "He's... not feeling well." That was a good lie... after all, it was mostly true. "I am currently in command until he's feeling better. Where is our peace delegation?"

Taken slightly aback at the annoucement, Ross did his best to recover. Obviously, he didn't want to be having this conversation. "Um... as we have already stated, we no longer wish to join the Federation. Please leave our space at once."

"Where is our peace delegation?" Kirk repeated, a little more angry than before.

Ross appeared to look at someone off-screen. He then turned back to face Kirk. "They are...ah... being detained. They will be returned once we..."

"I want to see them now." Kirk ordered. Inside, his heart was racing. He knew this could easily spark yet another war... a war neither side was ready to start... or were they?

There was another pause before Tegril spoke again. "That is impossible. You must leave now. They will be returned unharmed once you comply..."

"I suspect they're being held in the government building. How about I just blast that shield to oblivion and take a look for myself?" His palms were beginning to sweat. Stephen couldn't believe he had just said that. That wasn't very diplomatic, was it... he admitted to himself.

"Commander..." Richards interrupted nervously, looking up from his sensor console. "We have company." 


	8. Chapter 8

"Is it a little company or a lot of company?" Kirk asked nonchalantly.

Kenyon paid no attention to Kirk's attitude. Kirk wasn't seeing what he was seeing. He continued counting aloud as he looked at his readout. "Twenty-three, twenty-four... whoa... that's a big one." He shook his head as Stephen's look of confidence started to wane.

"Where are they coming from?" Kirk demanded.

"Some were cloaked," Kenyon offered weakly, angry at himself for not having the foresight to perform a tachyon burst. "Others were hiding at the magnetic poles of Cardassia Prime. It looks like others were hiding on the far sides of their moons." He finally stood up and turned to face his commanding officer. "I count thirty-two ships in all. Most are Jem'Hadar, but there are some Cardassian warships, too. Several of them look really big including one that's about the same size as us."

"I guess that would be a lot of company," Kirk admitted while staring at the ground. Kirk had a lot of confidence in the ship he was commanding... but not that much. This was too much and too fast for him. His mind swam trying to consider options. It would seem the straightforward approach wasn't going to work.

Richards turned back to his displays. "Sir, those ships are locking weapons on us."

It was more instinct than anything else. "T'Nia, lock weapons on target. Lock onto the larger ships first. Put the cannons into whatever that big thing is."

"Aye, Sir," she replied calmly. She would never dare question her commanding officer at a time like this. However, thinking logically, in her opinion, this was a poor position to push. She made a mental note to discuss this tactic later, if there was a later. Obeying her orders, she locked the Warlord's main cannons on the gigantic Dominion battleship as it arced towards them in a high orbit around Cardassia Prime.

Ensign Bristol stared at the small tactical display on his navigation console. Despite his desires to fly to the rescue and navigate through impossible odds in a blaze of glory, he instictively gulped as the small outlines of enemy vessels drew nearer. He had already been shaken from the outburst the captain exhibited and the rather unusual way Commander Kirk and Colonel Prichard handled the situation. This made him even shakier. His hands nervously moved above the engine controls, ready to take evasive action at a moments notice.

Lieutenant Davies stared incredulously at the Cardassian on the front viewscreen. Her heart nearly leapt into her throat when Commander Richards gave the final enemy vessel count. She actually became flush and a bit light headed when she heard Commander Kirk's reaction. Why wasn't he running? Why wouldn't he try to negotiate? Couldn't he see that even in a ship as powerful as this one, there was no way to take on almost three dozen ships at once? Did he have a suicide wish? Was he suffering from the same problem as Captain Bolerov? It took all her concentration to keep from running through the turbolift and down into her quarters where she could clutch her favorite round, purple pillow. Nervously, she turned to her newly refound friend, Tony and was actually startled by his almost evil grin.

Lieutenant Moreau sat comfortably in his seat watching the drama being played out. He had watched this ship easily handle three Romulan warbirds without even exhausting the first volley of ordinance... and it wasn't even at full strength. He also decided, weeks ago, that he was going to have more confidence in his friend, Steve. If Steve thought they could handle this fight, then it wasn't the Warlord that was in trouble... it was the Dominion. He continued repeating that thought until part of him actually started to believe it. His initial look of concern twisted into a smile.

Lieutenant Kelly examined the faces of the others on the bridge. They were all absolutely stiff and virtually motionless. He couldn't help but feel a bit nervous himself. This fight would be their biggest challenge yet. Tom know what this ship was made of. He knew the power it wielded. Part of him was afraid this was too much, even for a dreadnaught. As he contemplated the possibility that they might not survive this attack, strangely enough, he found himself more worried about the ship than his fiancee, Corina.

The Warlord and its attackers floated silently in space for several moments; neither side making the first move.

On the forward viewscreen, another person walked into view. He was decidedly shorter than Ross Tegril, with elongated ears that ran from the crown of his head down to his neck. The dark hair, pale skin, and purple eyes gave him away immediately. He was a vorta. His smile was twisted and confident. "Commander," his low, sing-song voice began, "where is your captain?"

"He's busy," Kirk replied tersely. Mentally, he was still trying to figure out options... what to attack first, how to locate the delegation and get Picard aboard, whether to get Bolerov back on the bridge. No option was looking overly pleasant... or feasible. Open combat was among them. He decided to continue playing the 'strong arm' card. "I demand the release of our peace delegation." Kirk made sure to make eye contact with only Tegril. "If you want to re-associate youself with these... people... that's your business. I just want our people back."

"I'm afraid we can't do that," the Vorta replied with a look of mock disappointment.

Kirk's eyes slowly shifted their gaze to the pale humanoid. "And exactly who are you to make decisions for Cardassian policy?"

"I am Gelnon, Chief Councilman Tegril's liason to the Dominion. They are rightfully back under the Dominion umbrella of protection." Gelnon put his arm around Ross Tegril for effect. Kirk noted the look of near physical pain Tegril expressed with the gesture. "It's a pleasure to meet your acquaintence, Commander Kirk." He smiled widely.

"I'm sure," Kirk replied flatly. That was the final straw. Perhaps it wasn't entirely voluntary, but the end result was... the Cardassians were back in league with the Dominion. Kirk folded his hands. "Fine. Why won't you give us back our people?"

"We'll need to hold them as insurance for awhile, Commander," Gelnon replied with a tilt of his head. "I can't afford to have a vessel like yours running loose in Dominion territory. You may bring harm to countless innocent lives. No... we shall keep them for now. As long as you leave our space immediately and inform your Starfleet to stay away, they shall remain unharmed. If you return...well..." he smiled evilly, "you get the idea."

"I want to know their still alive, Gelnon." Kirk demanded.

"My, my... aren't we assertive. Well, in order to assure you of our sincerity, here." With a wave of his hand the image on the forward viewscreen changed to a large room with a series of screens on the front wall. In the room were, easily, sixty people; a good number of them Cardassian or Jem'Hadar. Curiously, the Jem'Hadar were holding weapons over the Cardassians. Near the center of the room, Stephen could make out the peace delegation; all five of them.

Kirk shot Kenyon a quick glance, which he picked up. Kirk's eyes darted from Richards to the viewscreen, then to his sensor station. Commander Richards interpreted that as Stephen's desire for him to attempt to locate where that was. He quickly turned back to his station and began scanning everything he could possibly see.

"There, you see?" Gelnon asked, his image returning to the main screen, "they are safe and sound for now. How long they remain that way is entirely up to you and your Federation."

Kirk's expression grew defiant. The thought of being fooled into leaving the delegation behind and unprotected sickened him. The feeling of helplessness made it worse. His eyes narrowed. "If any of them comes to any harm at all..." he started.

"Please," Gelnon scoffed, "spare me the heroic posturing and leave. The Dominion fleet is getting restless." His evil smile grew even wider.

Stephen was practically shaking in rage. He wanted to order T'Nia to fire anyway. Instead, he spun on his heel. "Turn the screen off." He demanded. Unsure what to make of everything, Elaine simply nodded and turned back to her console. Within moments, the faces of Tegril and Gelnon vanished, replaced by a partial image of Cardassia Prime and several ships in close proximity. Several displayed the golden, triangular shape of a Cardassian warship. Many others, however, beared the tell-tale colors and shapes of the Jem'Hadar, including an immense battleship staring directly at them. Kirk closed his eyes and took a deep breath. This was insult to injury, he thought... defeated without even firing a shot. "Bristol, set a course for Earth. Get us out of here." Kirk plumped himself down into the captain's seat.

"Yes, Sir," Tyler replied sadly. Almost unconsciously, he plotted the familiar destination into the navigation computer. When the display flashed the word "Locked", he put his hands to the maneuvering thrusters. "Breaking orbit, Commander." The viewscreen showed the partial sphere of Cardassia Prime fading away off to the bottom left. As the Warlord continued its turn, the bridge crew saw even more enemy vessels. At the same time, the crew realized they had been completely surrounded.

Stephen examined the defeated looks on his crewmember's faces. He needed something inspirational to say... he knew that much. "This isn't over, people," he said finally, "We'll be back." It even sounded stupid to him... but it was all he could think to say.

Silently, the Warlord gained speed as the impulse engines powered up to send it to the edge of Cardassian space. 


	9. Chapter 9

Admiral Picard couldn't help but feel his spirits drop as he watched the image of the Warlord slowly disappear on the viewscreen in his holding room. It surprised him somehow that the starship simply left without any kind of fight. That simply wasn't Andrei Bolerov's style. Could their capture have something to do with Andrei's unwillingness to fight? Surely Andrei knew there was more at stake here than the lives of five Federation representatives. Picard struggled to see the other images on the viewscreen before it changed. In the dim light of the stars, he could make out a number of ships. Perhaps that was it. After all, even a mighty dreadnaught could face overwhelming odds that would require additional firepower.

Jean Luc sat back down on the floor and put his knees to his chest. That had to be it. Bolerov was getting reinforcements. He was positive Andrei knew the implications of having a Dominion presence back in the alpha quadrant. Hostages, in this situation, would have been irrelevent. He found himself reminiscing of his days on the Stargazer and 'Crash' Bolerov's straightforward ways. Jean Luc was so deep in thought he didn't notice someone else scooting towards him on the floor.

"Penny for your thoughts," the wiry haired Admiral Callis quipped with a smile.

Picard shook his head clear from the memories. "I'm afraid you'd feel shortchanged," Picard replied.

The viewscreen they had been observing the Warlords maneuvers on flashed back to life with large images of Gelnon and Magrid in the center. Gelnon was smiling widely; as though he had just won some competition. Magrid, on the other hand, looked visibly disheartened. "I do hope everyone's comfortable," he said sarcastically.

Councilman Elim Gerak stood up and faced the screen. The look on his face was indignant. "Some of us ARE elected officials, you know. I demand to know the reasoning for our imprisonment." He put his hands on his hips.

As Ross looked up from his end of the conversation, for a moment, he looked visibly hurt by the look in Gerak's eyes. "We're... changing our government... for awhile." He said slowly.

Gasps and whispers filled the holding room. When the conversations died down, Gerak cocked his head. "What do you mean, 'changing our government'?"

Gelnon cleared his throat. "It means the Detapa Council will be disbanding for a time." More gasps and rumblings came from the room, which apparently met with Gelnon's satisfaction. "We have determined it would be best if the Cardassian government had a single voice with which to interact with the Dominion. Perhaps, one day, we will allow Cardassia to have a more representative government... but for now, this is best for everyone."

Gerak voiced the outrage prevelent in the holding room. "The Cardassian people won't stand for it! Ross, what are you doing? Don't your realize how many of our people suffered and died to free us from these... these... monsters?" He clenched his fists in rage. Gerak remembered; he was there. He was part of the resistance movement that eventually retook the government building... the very building they were being held hostage in now. He remebered how many of his friends and family had paid the ultimate price to free their precious world from Dominion rule. The fact that an elected official would willingly hand their Union back to these people was unconscionable.

Ross grew indignant. "And where were you when the Obsidian Order usurped our government? Oh, yes... with the Federation! You have no room to talk, Gerak. You deserted your people. I'm trying to protect them."

Gerak's eyes glared. "How DARE you? When Cardassia needed me, I came back. I risked my life... my friends risked their lives... we all lost so much... and it was all because of THEM!" He pointed to Gelnon and the Jem'Hadar in the room with them. "And you would DARE chastise me? You're not fit to be a Cardassian, let alone a leader of Cardassians." The other Cardassians in the room were becoming incensed as Gerak's words reached their ears.

Gelnon interrupted with a wave of his hand. "Guards, silence him." The largest Jem'Hadar soldier, who had been moving closer to Gerak during his talk, motioned for two others to follow him. Gerak watched the three approach him with their weapons drawn. Gerak's look of rage was replaced by proud defiance as he stood tall, waiting for them to fire. The others in the room stared in shock as the Jem'Hadar drew nearer.

Picard stood up quickly. "Wait!" He urged. "This won't help you."

Gelnon raised his hand. The Jem'Hadar stopped their advance. "What do you mean, Picard?" He asked impatiently.

Picard, drawing from years of diplomatic experience in tense situations, calmed himself and walked slowly over to Gerak. "I have seen at least part of your fleet. I have seen enough to surmize you don't have enough resources yet to quell an uprising of the Cardassian people. That is why you started with the government."

Gelnon raised an eyebrow. His expression of impatience turned to interest. "Your point is?"

Picard smiled broadly. Without saying a word, Gelnon had proven Picard correct. "My point, Gelnon, is this; if you do anything to Councilman Gerak, he'll become a martyr. His entire district will rise up against you."

Gerak turned abruptly to Picard, who had successfully guessed his hidden reason for defiance. "Picard, what are you doing?"

Without even looking at Gerak, he gently raised his hand to him to silence him. "Now, I'd be willing to bet you don't have the forces here to repel a revolt of tens of thousands, do you?"

Gelnon had watched the brief exchange between Picard and Gerak with great interest. He had to admit, he didn't see the strategy in Gerak's defiance, but Picard did. Obviously, killing Gerak would be a mistake... for now. He waved his hand towards the advancing Jem'Hadar. Nodding, they quietly dispursed back to their original positions. "We will soon enough... especially now that we can, once again, count the Cardassian military among our own. I suggest you help Councilman Gerak hold his tongue in the future. Next time, I won't bother holding the guards back."

Gerak shot Tegril a look of disgust. "Traitor..." he grunted from behind gnashed teeth. The viewscreen went blank. Gerak quickly turned to Picard. "Why did you stop them, Picard? When word of my death got out..."

Picard interrupted him by putting a hand on his shoulder. "When word of your death got out, the revolt would have killed thousands, possibly tens of thousands of people... and Cardassia would have lost a great leader." Picard smiled warmly.

With a deep breath, the look of anger left Gerak's face. "True." He agreed with a smile.

Picard lowered his voice. "And, if my guess is correct, Captain Bolerov is already formulating a reprisal of his own. Your people will be free soon enough."

Gerak whispered back, "I hope you're right, Admiral." 


	10. Chapter 10

Tegril looked around the empty council chambers with regret. He had been here for months with the rest of the Detapa Council as they drafted their new Articles of the Union and the request to join the Federation. He remembered seeing the excitement on their faces as they fashioned together the documents. Of course Ross knew the documents would never come to pass. The Dominion had successfully kept their presence hidden for many months in the Orias system. Unknown to most, however, was the fact they were slowly moving themselves back into the Cardassian system using the cloaking technology they found in the remains of Orias III. Why they chose Cardassia III was beyond him. There wasn't much there; a number of fairly small cities and closed up labor camps.

Once they made their presence known to him, he should have reported it immediately. Gelnon's offer to help stabilize the Cardassian government had sounded good enough, though. He was disgusted with himself for believing they just wanted to live in peace in a remote area of Cardassia III. He should have KNOWN better. When he finally realized Gelnon's true plans of liberating the Shapeshifter from the Federation and re-establishing Dominion rule, it was too late. He had been allowing the Dominion to operate from a closed labor camp in his district. What was worse... when Gelnon began doubting Ross' loyalties, he had Ross' family imprisoned on one of the battle cruisers until the coup was complete.

Now, the remains of the Detapa Council had branded him a traitor and he didn't blame them. He had assisted in the Dominion retaking authority over Cardassia and it disgusted him. Everything the council had been working for was ruined and it depressed him. Then... on top of everything else, his actions wound up imprisoning five Federation diplomats. That terrified him... especially knowing Gelnon let the Warlord escape. The only solice he found was in the hopes that Gelnon would keep his word and let his family go.

Gelnon switched the screen off and turned to Ross Tegril. "My, my," he said melodically, "it would seem they don't like you at all."

"I guess not," Ross admitted, his eyes drawn to the ground. "When can I expect my family to be returned?"

"Soon, Tegril, very soon," Gelnon cooed. "Once we have confirmation the Federation ship is destroyed."

Tegril looked up at Gelnon perplexed. "What are you talking about?"

Gelnon chuckled. "Oh, come now. You really don't think I let them go, do you?" The Cardassian shook his head quizzically. "I needed that ship to leave so it would break the spirits of our 'guests' next door. There's a ship following them. Once they're far enough away that they feel safe enough to drop their shields, they'll attack. With the Federation ship gone, it will take weeks for the Federation to realize something is wrong and come to investigate." He clapped his hands together and smiled. "By then, we'll be sufficiently entrenched that we can deal with them."

Tegril's heart sank at the idea that even more people would have to die. "Sounds like a very well thought out plan."

Gelnon puffed his chest. "Doesn't it, though? I do hope the Founder will be proud." 


	11. Chapter 11

"...so I wasn't sure what to do... so I did what Gelnon instructed and left the system." Stephen was hunkered over the small display terminal in the ready room, staring at an image of a perplexed Admiral Leonard, still in his pajamas. He knew how early in the morning he was calling, but this was too important to wait until 'normal business hours'.

Still stunned, Admiral Leonard simply shook his head. "My god."

Kirk yawned. The double shift, coupled with the emotional stress of the past day was finally starting to get to him. "Anyway," Kirk continued, "we're on our way back to Earth... unless you've got something else in mind."

Leonard looked back at the screen, still stunned. "No, no. You're doing the right thing. This is an extraordinary set of circumstances." There was what seemed to be an interminable pause as the admiral considered his options. He rubbed his bearded cheek. "Okay... just keep doing what you're doing now. Maintain course, speed and alert status for now. I'm going to get a hold of Starfleet Command and get their take on this."

"Yes, Sir." Kirk nodded.

Leonard nodded as well. "When I get more information, I'll contact you." Kirk nodded again. The old admiral's face turned grave. "Have your primary bridge crew stand down as soon as possible. Get them to take it easy... rest... get some sleep while they can."

Stephen wasn't understanding the logic behind Admiral Leonard's orders. Surely it was easier to just stick to the normal rotation; the captain being the only exception. "Sir?"

"Stephen," the old admiral's face continued its grave expression, but softened a bit. Leonard had been around Starfleet, especially during the Dominion War, long enough to realize what was liable to happen in the next several hours. It was entirely possible an unreasonable demand might be placed on the new ship. If that was the decision of Starfleet Command, he wouldn't enjoy relaying it. His voice became like a father's. He took a deep breath. "Things may change dramatically in the next few hours. I need your principle crew as fresh as possible." A quiet beeping sound could be heard from the console's speakers. Leonard looked down. "Good. I just received your sensor logs. I'm going to go over these, then forward them to our oversight committee."

"Understood, Sir." Stephen's exhausted mind was still trying to process the gravity of everything that had happened. The captain was incapacitated in sickbay, the peace process in Cardassia had completely fallen apart, five Federation diplomats were being held hostage, and the Dominion was trying to reassert its control of the alpha quadrant. The strain was making Kirk's head hurt. His memory then drifted back to sending two Marine starships into a trap and the Warlord being diverted from their main position. Kirk had seen the signs of Captain Bolerov behaving strangely. He began blaming himself for allowing all this to happen.

Leonard could see the stress on Stephen's face. "Stephen," he prodded. Kirk's gaze continued to shift downward. "Stephen," Leonard insisted. Kirk finally snapped from his thoughts and looked up. Leonard attempted a smile. "You did well... as well as anyone could be expected to do. Don't you dare waste your energies blaming yourself for things that were out of your control."

The admiral's words actually brought some comfort to him. "I won't, Sir," he replied quietly.

Admiral Leonard nodded. "Good. Now, relieve your bridge crew and get some sleep. I'll contact you shortly. Leonard out." 


	12. Chapter 12

The faint beeping in the darkness sounded like it was coming from the end of a long tunnel. It beeped again, but closer this time... and there was a voice. What was it saying? There was another beep; sounding like it had exited the tunnel. "Commander Kirk?" The male voice asked.

"Hmmm," Kirk mumbled.

"Commander Kirk, this is Ensign Xex from the bridge."

Kirk struggled to open his eyes. He found himself on the couch in his living quarters. Apparently, he had been too tired to make it all the way to bed. Mentally, he fought the barely functioning muscles in his arms until he was sitting up. Wearily, he looked at the clock. He had gotten just under four hours of sleep. He closed his eyes again and tapped his comm badge. "Yeah."

"Commander?" The young voice of Ensign Xex asked. Xex was one of many third shift personnel Stephen hadn't met yet, so he couldn't put a face to the voice.

"Yeah," he repeated in a gravelly voice.

"Commander, I have Admiral Leonard on a priority one channel. He says he needs to speak with you and the command crew immediately."

With that proclomation, the events of yesterday came flying back from the dream he was hoping they were into a reality he wasn't sure he wanted to face again. "Okay," he managed to say through a yawn. "okay... get T'Nia, Richards and Kelly and have them meet me in the conference room. I'll be there in just a second."

"Understood, Sir."

"Kirk out." He tapped his comm badge again, then attempted to move his left leg off the couch. He didn't realize how close to the edge of the couch he already was. With the shift in his weight, Stephen completely slid off the couch to the floor, banging his knee on the coffee table. In his daze, he didn't even yell out in pain. He simply stated "Ow."

Staggering to his feet, he stumbled to his bathroom and looked in the mirror. His uniform was a wrinkled mess. He stared at his closet for a moment, considering changing clothes, then opted against it. Instead, he just pulled firmly on his uniform top until most of the major wrinkles were gone. Stephen then noticed his hair was a mess. Rather than officially wash it, he turned on the water in his sink until the basin was mostly full. He then proceded to dunk his head in the water, lift it back out, then run his fingers through his short, brown hair. Looking at the wetness of the top of his uniform, he decided he really didn't care.

As he left the bathroom and headed towards the door, he snapped his fingers, and then called out, "Computer... I need a breath mint." 


	13. Chapter 13

Stephen met a yawning Commander Richards as he was about to enter the conference room. Richards noticed Kirk's hair was still wet. "Nice hair," he commented with a weak smile.

Kirk noticed Kenyon's normally short, tight afro was flat in the front. "You, too." He countered.

"Crap," Kenyon did his best rub his fingers through the front of his head. The door opened with a hiss to reveal Lieutenant Commander T'Nia and Chief Engineer Kelly were already seated. 

On the viewscreen at the far side of the table was an image of Admiral Leonard, flanked by two other admirals. One, Stephen had seen, but never met. The other, Stephen had met several times, and never wished to see again. Fleet Admiral Kanegawa sat to Leonard's left, and Admiral Wellington sat to his right. Admiral Kanegawa combed his short, white hair straight back and kept his equally white moustache equally short, just to the edges of his lips. Although the areas around his eyes were wrinkled, it was virtually impossible to tell his age. His steel gray eyes still sparkled with alertness. Wellington sat a little taller in the chair than Kanegawa with his wavy graying hair still perfectly combed backwards. Admiral Leonard sat the tallest of the three. Although Kirk normally enjoyed talking with the Scottish admiral, the grave looks on their faces indicated this conversation would anything but pleasant. Kirk and Richards sat down. "Good to see you two." Admiral Leonard offered warmly. "I trust you also slept well."

"Not nearly long enough, Admiral," Kirk commented as he sat down with a grunt. "I take it something has changed?"

Well, not so much 'changed' as 'concluded'," Leonard answered. "We need your team to confirm some information we've compiled."

"Whatever you need, Admiral," Kirk offered.

Wellington chimed in with his aged, rocky voice. "The status of your primary weapons... they can each fire once at fifty percent power, essentially per engagement, correct?"

Wellington's talking was almost like twisted pieces of metal screaming against each other to Kirk. Forcing back his desire to say something that would get him courtmartialed, he nodded. "That's correct."

"And that was part of our simulations, correct, gentlemen?" The ageless fleet admiral asked. The other two nodded their heads in agreement.

Stephen definately did not like where this meeting was going. "What's going on, Sir?" Kirk asked directly to Leonard.

Leonard held up his pointer finger to Kirk to ask him to wait a moment while the admiral shifted his gaze to T'Nia. "Lieutenant Commander T'Nia, given the sensor readings from the battlegroup around Cardassia, I need a tactical assessment. Does Warlord stand a reasonable chance of success if it engages the Dominion fleet?" Leonard's gaze on T'Nia was intense.

T'Nia returned his gaze emotionlessly as she considered his statement. Once the gravity of his request hit her, she responded the only way a true vulcan would, she raised an eyebrow. "One moment, Admiral." She spun the computer console in front of her around and began furiously pressing pads on the screen.

Kirk's eyes widened. "Will there be other ships to back us up?" He asked. Surely they weren't thinking of sending the Warlord into a badly lopsided battle without its captain when there were hostages on the surface. It would be certain death for them.

Leonard slowly shook his head. "I'm afraid the nearest ship to your position is almost two weeks away. Starfleet intelligence believes the Dominion would be too well entrenched by then."

T'Nia looked up from her panel. "A fast extrapolation of offenses versus defenses suggests we would have a sixty-one percent chance of victory."

Kirk looked over at the panel, not liking those odds. He pointed to her variables. "Don't use the basic decision system. Use the advanced. Specify that we'd concentrate our firepower on those capital ships first."

She nodded. "Yes, Sir." I should have thought of that, she thought. That was logical. After several more key presses, she looked back up. "That puts our percent of victory at eighty-one percent."

The three admirals nodded. Wellington resumed speaking. "Our simulations came up with three possible scenarios. The worst-case scenario has the battlegroup expecting you to return and planned an ambush for you. We still have the Warlord surviving with moderate damage and no more than eighty lives lost." Wellington glared at Kirk. "That is... as long as you don't screw it up."

Stephen wanted to ignore Wellington's comments, but he was right. "Admiral," Stephen appealed to Leonard, "for a plan like this, don't you want Captain Bolerov involved?"

Leonard's expression saddened deeply as he shook his head. "I'm afraid the captains problems extend much more deeply than the current incident. We were hoping he had truly recovered. I'm afraid we've decided to support the doctor's relief of duty." Stephen's heart sank. "This is your boat, Commander... for the immediate future." The only comfort to what Stephen was hearing was seeing the look of frustration and anguish on Wellington's face. Unfortunately, that wasn't much comfort right now. Every past voice of criticism and doubt came flooding back to him as small pinpricks in his head. The last time he captained the Warlord in battle eight people had lost their lives. Now... the thought of possibly losing a third of the crew was overwhelming. Silently, he tried praying for wisdom, for calm, for anything... but the other voices were too many and too loud. He couldn't finish.

"Calm your mind, Stephen." It was a woman's voice in his head. "You will not go through this alone." It was T'Nia's voice. 

Confused, Stephen shook his head back to reality. At once, all the voices of doubt fled... at least, for the moment. That was when he felt it. Although T'Nia's eyes were squarely focused on the discussions with the admirals that Stephen had been missing, her hand had slowly moved from the computer terminal to hold Stephen's. She was communicating to him telepathically. He smiled and gripped her hand tightly for a moment before letting go. The last time she had done that for him was just before the Kobyashi Maru training simulation in the Academy.

Fleet Admiral Kanegawa patted his hands on the table in front of him. "Then... it is settled. Your data corroborates ours. Your mission is to return to Cardassian space immediately and eliminate the Dominion threat once and for all." His gaze became intense as he looked straight at Kirk. "Surrender will not be an option for either side."

Kirk gulped. "What about the hostages, Admiral?" He asked weakly. He already knew the answer.

Kanegawa's expression didn't change. Leonard's, however, did. "I'm afraid they are expendable. We all know the risks when we enter situations like the one they entered. Let nothing dissuade you, Commander. Your only goal is to remove the Dominion threat from the alpha quadrant by any and all means necessary. Destroy whatever needs to be destroyed."

"And what of the Cardassians?" He asked flatly.

"By any and all means necessary, Commander." Kanegawa repeated. "Their lives are expendable as well. They were on the road to a formalized peace with us. Instead, they chose to side with the Dominion once again. Good luck, Commander."

"Don't screw it up," Wellington added darkly.

Leonard shot Wellington a quick, disapproving look, then turned back to the screen. "I'm still placing my same wager, Commander," he added with a smile. "Starfleet out."

The screen went black. 


	14. Chapter 14

The senior officers walked back to the bridge in silence, their faces giving away their thoughts. T'Nia was deep in thought on how to obtain the greatest tactical advantage. Thirty-two warships was a considerable number... especially when seven of them were Jem'Hadar capital ships, including a battleship. Obviously, the neutron cannons would be reserved for it. As for the other ships... she considered whether this would be an opportune moment to test the automatic firing system. Should Commander Kirk seek her council, which he inevitably would, that would be her recommendation.

Commander Richard's thoughts lingered back to his sensor console. Thirty-two ships. There were thirty-two ships... and that was all he could immediately count. They had escaped with their lives. He was grateful for that. Kenyon figured Starfleet would send more vessels, and with Warlord in the lead, they would rout the Dominion before their influence would spread beyond Cardassia. In a million years, he never figured they'd send Warlord in... by itself... especially without her captain... not that he was in much condition to do anything. Still, Commander Kirk seemed so... young, even though he was only a few years younger than himself. When told of their mission, he was forced to admit to himself, he was jealous that Stephen had the nod as the ship's commander. Granted, he had the seniority on the Warlord, but only for five months! Besides, Richards had more starship experience. It wasn't until after the gravity of the situation hit him that he realized he didn't WANT to be the ships commander.

Lieutenant Kelly walked in stunned silence. To him, thirty-two enemy ships was entirely too many guns pointed at one ship, no matter what a computer simulation said. His ship was going to take a pounding. If a computer simulation said they would lose eighty lives, then, more likely, they'll lose more than that. On top of THAT, he thought, we don't even have a captain. Tom had stopped by to see Captain Bolerov before taking his manditory rest. He was unconscious in sickbay. The doctor had been pumping the alchohol from his bloodstream for almost an hour. Doctor Rass hadn't been hopeful to see the captain back in command for awhile, and that was before the admirals confirmed his suspension. His people were going to need him more than he needed to know what was going on with the bridge. "Excuse me, everyone," he said quietly, "I think I'll be better used in engineering." He spun on his heel and headed back down the hall.

Kirk nodded his approval to Kelly as he turned to leave. This certainly wasn't what he wanted. He didn't even want the first officer's position, for crying out loud. Now, ONCE AGAIN, as Stephen takes his ship and charges into a hostile situation with guns blazing, that'll just be one more comparison he'll have to live down. Then... it dawned on him. It was like the wisdom he had wanted to hear during the meeting, but couldn't calm himself enough to listen to. Him, him, him... he had been worrying about himself. Stephen had completely forgotten about the five Federation delegates being held hostage whom he would be sentencing to death by his approach. There was no way he was going to let that happen. There had to be a way to save them.

As the threesome headed to the turbolift that would take them to the bridge, Stephen gently nudged T'Nia with his elbow. She turned to him. "Thanks for the calming voice back there," he offered quietly with a smile.

She nodded slightly and almost smiled. She wanted to tell him how much she valued him as a friend. She wanted to be more encouraging. Despite his many successes, Stephen seemed consumed with his failures, even if they were only perceived by him alone. Unfortunately, with Commander Richards present, T'Nia couldn't convince herself to lower her guard and be Stephen's friend. Commander Kirk's subbordinate was all she could reveal. "You are welcome, Commander."

Richards, feeling somewhat awkward at not remembering anything she said that was 'calming', decided to interject his own comment. "I can't believe we're just supposed to forget about our own people on Cardassia." He shook his head. "As soon as we show up, they'll be killed. That Gelnon guy said it himself." It had been eating at him ever since the meeting, but he couldn't find a reasonable place to fit the comment. The turbolift doors opened and they stepped in.

"Bridge," Stephen announced to the air. The turbolift began to hum as it moved forwards, then up. He turned to Kenyon. "We're not forgetting about our people. We don't leave our people behind." That was more a statement from his Marine days than his Academy days, but it was how he felt. "We're getting them out of there." He added with a look of determination.

Richards' eyes widened a bit with pleasant surprise. He knew the orders. He knew Kirk accepted the orders to their faces. "But... the admiral said..."

"I know what the admiral said," Kirk shot back, cutting him off. "We'll accomplish our mission, but I'm getting those delegates out of there. I'm not really concerned with what happens to the Cardassians, but I'm bringing our people home."

T'Nia, not surprised at all at Stephen's statement, simply raised an eyebrow. Kenyon tilted his head and gave Stephen a skeptical look. "And how are you planning on doing that?"

Kirk's look of determination faded as he twisted his lips and looked away. "Yeah... that's still kind of a black box right now. I'm working on it." Now, they both looked skeptical. "What?" 


	15. Chapter 15

The turbolift doors opened allowing the three to return to their seats; relieving the three who had taken their places. As Kirk sat down in the rather uncomfortable captain's seat, he silently prayed for several seconds on what to do. "The hostages have to be the first priority," he kept thinking to himself. "But that violates our mission," he would add. Hopefully, something would come to him. "Lieutenant Davies," he announced, "put me on shipwide. Everyone needs to know what's going on."

The proclomation made her nervous, but she quickly complied. "You're on, Sir," she replied.

Kirk nodded his appreciation. "Warlord crew... this is Commander Kirk. I need you all to stop what you're doing for a moment." He paused for several seconds trying to gather his thoughts. "We just received new orders from Starfleet Command. Because the Dominion is attempting to retake the alpha quadrant through Cardassia again, we've been instructed to... well... destroy them. We are to turn this ship around fly straight into the battle fleet in Cardassian space. I know... it sounds like long odds. But... I've said it before. This is the best ship in the fleet and the best crew in space. We'll get through this and we'll eliminate this new Dominion threat before it can threaten anybody else. I need first shift crews on standby until further notice. Kirk out." He gave the cut sign to Elaine who promptly ended the transmission.

"Ensign Bristol," Kirk began. 

Tyler snapped to attention and turned around. His jitters were over. This was exactly what he had been hoping for. This was the kind of battle he had been dreaming of his whole life. Heck, almost all his favorite holodeck programs involved a battle just like this. He was practically jumping out of the chair. "Yes, Sir!" He shouted with more entheusiasm than the rest of the bridge crew was comfortable with. "Yes, Sir," he repeated more quietly with a slight look of embarassment on his face.

Stephen had to smile. He had been just like that... several years ago. Still, that kind of positive attitude would do well in this situation. "Don't worry about it," Kirk countered with a smile. "Lay in a course for Card... wait a second." Something struck him. He turned to Commander Richards. "Kenyon... what do you suppose the odds are we're being followed?"

Kenyon hadn't thought of that, but it made perfect sense, especially in the eyes of a paranoid Cardassian race and an upstart Dominion takeover. He nodded. "Considering damn near all those ships had a cloaking device... I'd say it's a fool's bet."

Kirk smiled. "My thoughts exactly. We can't afford to have someone telegraphing our next move." He turned to his tactical officer, T'Nia. "T'Nia, our shields are still up, right?"

She looked to confirm before turning back. "Yes, Sir. We are still at a tactical alert status."

Kirk nodded before turning back to Richards. "We haven't bothered doing a tachyon burst for awhile, have we?"

Richards shook his head. "Wouldn't do any good if we did. At warp speed, the thing is pretty much useless."

"Oh, yeah," Kirk remembered the description of the burst and how it worked... one of the few times he bothered paying attention to technical descriptions. Tachyons started at one point, then just kept continuing into infinity from that point. At warp speeds, they would completely overshoot their ability to monitor the tachyons' trajectories as soon as they initiated it. Their only alternative... stop. "We'll have to stop and look," Kirk offered, scratching his chin.

"All they'd have to do is stop beyond our effective range," Richards countered.

Kirk smiled evilly. "Then we'll have to stop quickly." That comment made Tyler turn around and raise an eyebrow. He wasn't relishing the thought of making something as big as the Warlord stop 'quickly.'

"And if they're following too close?" Kirk was actually enjoying Kenyon playing devil's advocate.

Stephen shrugged. "Then... I guess we'll find out how good these shields really are. Let's face it, no matter what our next step is; we need to clear our baffles of whatever may be behind us."

Kenyon shrugged. There was no getting around that logic. However, there may not be anyone behind them after all. If there was, there was still a chance this wouldn't expose them. That said, he couldn't think of a better way to find them... if they WERE there.

Kirk thought a moment. "Mr. T'Nia, ready tubes three and four and seventeen and eighteen." Kirk ordered.

"Aye, Sir," she replied emotionlessly. Her fingers danced across the panel loading all four torpedo tubes with ordinance.

"You're loading forward guns, too?" Richards asked.

Kirk shrugged again. "If they're above or below us, they may shoot past us." He turned to Tyler. "Tyler, I need you to prepare for an emergency stop." Kirk spun around. "Elaine, warn all departments."

"Aye, aye, Sir." Lieutenant Davies quickly spun back around and put her earpiece to her ear.

"Torpedoes loaded, Sir." T'Nia announced.

"Ready when you are, Commander," Tyler added with his fingers over the braking controls.

Kirk turned to Kenyon. "I'll need a tachyon burst as soon as we stop."

"I'm on it," Richards announced as he spun back around to his console.

"Commander, all stations on alert." Davies added.

Kirk nodded and took a deep breath. "Everyone ready?" The question was more rhetorical than anything, but the bridge crew nodded just the same. What would happen if nothing was behind them, he thought. What if this didn't work? He shook his head. It was too late to worry about that now. They needed to do something. They had to gain the upper hand somehow. It was the only way they'd have a chance at rescuing Picard. He nervously rubbed his hands together. "Let's see who's back there... all stop!" 


	16. Chapter 16

Gul Danar sat uneasily in his command chair aboard cramped bridge of the the Aldara. Unlike the newer Cardassian vessels in production, this Galor-class cruiser still used old bulkheads for doors and had a number of exposed tubes, pipes, and conduits throughout the ceiling and walls. The golden brown color of the walls and control panels were calmingly reminiscent of the desert plains of Cardassia Prime and Cardassia III, where most of the crew was from.

The Aldara had been one of only three Galor class cruisers outfitted with improved weapons and a cloaking device, but hadn't been sent on the ill-fated Cardassian/Romulan joint mission into the Gamma Quadrant. As with the other two Galor-class ships, it had been set back with mechanical difficulties during the upgrade process and was forced to stay behind. These new, upgraded, Keldon-class cruisers had barely escaped the Orias system when the Dominion launched their counter attack that devastated the entire system. He could tell by the faces of his bridge crew that they didn't want to be pursuing this Federation ship, either. His annoyance at his superiors made him grit his teeth. First, they were fighting the Dominion, then they were partnering with the Dominion. Then, they changed sides and fought against the Dominion. Now... they were siding with the Dominion once again.

Personally, he didn't want anything to do with the Dominion. On several occasions, he had even considered disobeying orders and attempting to contact the Warlord in an effort to retake Cardassia. He knew several other Guls would follow his lead. After all, this new Federation ship was immense; over eight times the size of his own cruiser. With the help of what was left of the Cardassian navy, they could easily defeat this Jem'Hadar task force. Besides, just looking at the size of the ship they were following... it would be suicide to go against it one-on-one, even with cloaking technology and advanced disruptor cannons. It had also crossed his mind to simply turn around and tell his superiors the Federation ship simply got away.

He didn't want to be here. He didn't want to be following this ship. He didn't want to have to attack what was probably their best chance at freeing Cardassia once and for all from the Dominion's hands. Once more, the words "Open a hailing frequency to the Federation ship," almost left his lips. He sat up straight in his seat. In the end, he was a soldier sent to perform his duty. Although he didn't relish the idea of being under Dominion rule again, he didn't want to be a pawn of the Federation, either. He would remain a loyal Cardassian soldier to the end. Eventually, he thought, this warship would HAVE to let its shields down. When they did, they would strike. He figured they only had one chance. They would have to drop their cloak in order to fire and they had been warned that this Federation ship was capable of seeing cloaked vessels. The Aldara would have to stay back until the very last moment. Perhaps, once this mission was complete, he would be able to more surreptitiously talk to the other Guls and organize a resistance. He rubbed his neck ridges in the hopes of relieving some stress.

"The Federation ship has stopped!" His sensor officer exclaimed.

"By the fates!" The navigator swore as he feverishly began pressing buttons and flipping switches in an attempt to stop as well.

Realizing the Warlord had probably stopped too quickly to avoid them from being detected by their sensors, Gul Danar only ordered the obvious. "Emergency stop!" He yelled, standing up from his seat. "Reverse engines! Back us up!"

"I'm trying!" The navigator yelled.

"We've been hit by a field of tachyons!" The science officer yelled.

Oh, no, Danar thought. They had been found out. Somehow, the Warlord crew knew they were being followed. Now, they were discovered. He still had a chance, though. "Decloak the ship! Open all hailing frequencies!" He yelled aloud. Hopefully, they would listen.

The sensor officer looked at the forward viewscreen to see a red pinpoint of light glowing in an aft torpedo tube. "Oh, no," he said quietly. 


	17. Chapter 17

The explosion was much brighter than anyone had anticipated, forcing the bridge crew to close, cover, or avert their eyes. "Stand by torpedo eighteen," Kirk announced from behind his forearm.

"I don't believe that will be necessary," T'Nia countered as she squinted at her tactical display. As the brilliance fo the explosion faded, everyone returned their gaze to the front viewscreen, which was showing the now visible Cardassian warship behind them.

"Oh, my god," Richards exclaimed as he looked at his sensor panel. Stephen looked questioningly at Kenyon, but his eyes never left the readouts. Slowly, he turned his gaze at the viewscreen. As the sparks and fires died down, they could see that the entire front half of the cruiser was missing. The crew gasped.

After several seconds of staring incredulously at the screen, Stephen shook his head. "There's no way one torpedo did that. We must have hit something... ignited some fuel... set off their weapons array... something." He turned expectantly to Richards, who was already scanning the debris.

After an eternity of moments, Kenyon shook his head and turned around. "I'm not seeing any residual signs of secondary explosions. It looks like that was all us, Sir." He said grimly.

"Wow," Kirk said quietly as he sat back down. His desire was to disable the ship, not destroy it.

"Actually, Sir," T'Nia began cautiously, "it is." She turned around to face him. "A standard quantum torpedo has a little over twice the yield of a typical photon torpedo. We, however, employ high-yield quantum torpedoes, which are twice the size of a standard quantum torpedo, but five times the yield. In essense, we struck an unshielded Cardassian ship with the equivalent of twelve photon torpedoes in one location, which would, quite reasonably, cause that kind of damage."

Kirk sat there stunned. They had been so used to engaging larger vessels, he wasn't expecting that kind of devastation. "Are there any lifesigns?"

Kenyon quickly spun back around and began scanning. Several more moments passed with Commander Richards slowly turning back around and shaking his head. "The emergency bulkheads never even had a chance to close."

Lieutenant Moreau whistled. "Kind of like taking a cannon to a mosquito," Kirk and Bristol chuckled.

Elaine shot him a dirty glance. How could he be so callous? There were at least five hundred lives on that ship. They all died within seconds, having done nothing... and Tony was making a JOKE of it? She felt horrible inside... and guilty.

Stephen, on the other hand, was thinking of something else as he stared as the remains of the Cardassian ship. "What if they didn't see us coming?" He asked aloud.

T'Nia raised an eyebrow as she stared at the screen. That idea had merit. Kirk turned to Richards. "I don't suppose their cloaking device survived..."

"Let me check," Richards interjected with entheusiasm. He spun back around and began pressing buttons. Stephen walked over to Kenyon's station.

Richards' finger snap and disappointed look was enough for Stephen. He turned around as Stephen approached. "It must have been near the middle of the ship." He pointed to a display above the console that showed a wireframe depiction of what was left of the Cardassian ship. A faint and diffused blue halo appeared in front of the wreckage. Commander Richards pointed to the halo. "That's what's left of the damping field. The device must have been blown to pieces." Kirk pursed his lips. "Sorry," Kenyon offered.

Tony snapped his fingers. "Well, what if they didn't see US coming?" The bridge crew turned to him curiously as he pointed his thumb at the Cardassian ship.

Kirk smiled and nodded. "You mean use our sensor mask to look like that ship." Tony lit up and smiled.

T'Nia nodded. "They certainly wouldn't know it was us approaching."

"Especially if you banged us up a little," Kirk added.

Tony nodded while scratching his head. "I could do that." Moreau was quite proud of himself for coming up with the idea, especially since Steve was running with it.

Kenyon still looked skeptical. "Okay, that gets us to Cardassia... but then what?"

Stephen began pacing along the back of the bridge. "I'm working on it." Kirk scratched his chin as he walked. There was an idea coming... he just needed to flesh it out. All he was truly interested in was getting the diplomats out. As long as he could accomplish that, he had no qualms about blowing everything else apart. He spun around back to Kenyon. "Your scans didn't reveal any humans near the council chambers, right?"

Richards nodded. "Nothing within line-of-sight."

"They have to be in that government building across the street." Stephen concluded, still pacing.

"I was able to scan two floors underground. There weren't any humans there, but I know it went further down. With the shields up, I couldn't scan any more."

"Okay," he started, "let's assume they're in there. We need to get those shields down... and quickly. T'Nia, exactly what would it take from us to knock those shields down?"

"One moment, Sir," She turned around and quickly brought up the tactical display of the sensor readings for the government building.

Kirk turned back to Richards. "I'm thinking if we hit the building hard and fast enough, we can transport the delegates up in the confusion."

"That would leave our shields down while we were shooting at a government building. I doubt anyone in orbit would just let us do that." Kenyon countered.

"We'd only be hanging out butts out there for a few seconds," Kirk offered.

"Against polaron cannons... that'll hurt."

T'Nia turned back towards the conversation. "Commander, it will require either one torpedo and three pulse phasers or two torpedoes. Two torpedoes would be faster, but would also cause minor structural damage to the upper level of the building."

Kirk nodded. "That could add to the confusion... anything to buy our people time for us to get them out. We'll go with the two torpedoes." Although he was pleased that a plan was finally forming, something was nagging at him. It was his conscience. As much as he didn't want to care about what happened to the Cardassians, he felt compelled to. Whatever grip the Dominion had, it obviously wasn't complete considering the number of Cardassians who were imprisoned with the peace delegation.

"This is a case where you have to look at the bigger picture," he remembered Captain Bolerov telling him once, when dealing with the Romulans. Perhaps this was another one of those cases. They were obviously not sent to commit genocide against the entire Cardassian race, but future relations with the remainder of the Union would depend on how this crisis was handled.

Tony interrupted his train of thought. "I've got your image, Commander." Calling Steve by title was still a little awkward. Calling him 'Sir' was even worse. "And I can beat us up pretty good, too. If you'd like, I can even knock out our communciations relay so we don't have to talk to anyone."

"That's a good idea," Stephen admitted. "Do it." Tony spun around in his chair and began making the alterations to the masking program.

With one final button press, he turned back around. "Alright, everyone... we are now officially the Cardassian cruiser Aldara.

"Good work, Tone." Kirk slipped. He should have called Tony by a more official name. It was the respectful, officially sanctioned thing to do. Stephen turned back to Commander Richards. "Commander, does that ship have any power left to its systems?"

Kenyon took a quick look at his panel and shrugged. "The batteries kicked in, but they're draining awfully fast."

Kirk nodded. "Can you tell if the computer system is up at all?"

Kenyon took another glance. "Well, SOMETHING is up, but it's probably a mess. I mean, there are major system shutdowns all over what's left of it."

"Well, it's something," Stephen said to himself. "Tony, I've got another job for you. See if you can crack into what's left of their computer. I need some kind of plans or blueprints for the lower levels of that government building."

Tony's eyes bugged. "Nothing like a challenge," he commented. Spinnign back around to his console, he began the arduous task of connecting with a foreign computer and rummaging through its memory looking for the specifications for one building before the battery power died. Tony sincerely hoped Steve didn't expect anything out of this.

"What are you hoping to learn, Commander?" Kenyon asked cautiously.

"I need to know what it will take to get everyone out of there," Stephen replied, returning to the captain's seat.

"You mean the Federation delegates?"

Kirk sat forward in the seat and stared intently at the remains of the ship on the viewscreen. "No... I mean all of them. We're going to get them all out of there. Ensign Bristol, set a course for Cardassia Prime, warp five."

Richards gave Kirk a concerned look. "That's not exactly part of the mission parameter, Sir," he said slowly.

Kirk nodded. "We'll take care of our primary mission, Commander... but sometimes, you have to look at the big picture."

"Course laid in, Sir." Bristol announced.

"Engage." 


	18. Chapter 18

The newly appointed Prefect, Ross Tegril stood anxiously in the center of the council chambers staring at a small video screen on the desk in front of him. The Vorta, Gelnon, and two of his Jem'Hadar soldiers stood next to him watching the scene unfold. At the lowest level of the concentric room, a dozen other Cardassian officials sat and watched on screens of their own. An increasing crowd was gathering by the front door of their building. He had lost count when the number had grown to over a hundred. So far, the Cardassian military had been able to keep them a safe distance from the door, but they were getting increasingly hostile. Many were carrying signs reading "We didn't want them before, we don't want them now!", "No more Dominion rule!", "Kick them out", or others.

"Your predecessor was a fool," Gelnon said without taking his eyes off the screen. "If only he had heeded your advice to keep the Federation out, none of this would have happened."

Part of Ross' consciousness wanted to scream along with the protesters and tell Gelnon and his Jem'Hadar thugs to leave. But, as long as his family was being kept aboard their ships, what could he do? His mind wrestled with the conflict of leading his world and protecting his family. He knew the right thing to do was to force them out... call in the military and have them overrun the facility. It would mean sacrificing his life; he was prepared to do that. But, try as he might to force his mouth to say the right thing, Ross simply couldn't bear to see harm come to his daughter or his wife. In the end, all he could do was stand there, shaking, with his eyes closed as he was forced to hear a Vorta insult his mentor for having the right idea.

Gelnon seemed to sense the conflict within Ross and eyed him intently for several seconds considering what his broken puppet may do or say. Since there was no reaction, Gelnon figured the puppet was still safely in his control. "Someone needs to say something to these people, Prefect." He said in an almost mocking way.

Ross Tegril had been fooled. He realized that now. The promises of being a strong, independent force in the alpha quadrant were lies. The promises of help in exchange for safe harbor... lies. The promise to help him and his friends rise to power in exchange for a place where they could be left alone... lies. Now, Ross had discovered that, not only was he fooled by a pack of lies, but that he really wasn't leadership material after all. Perhaps that was why Gelnon had chosen him... he'd be easy to manipulate. Now, here he was being manipulated. Ross knew exactly what Gelnon meant by 'someone should'. It was an order... another order. It was like swallowing a vile poison. "What would you have me say?" Ross choked out.

Gelnon's expression became frustrated. Perhaps he picked someone with too little of a spine. "Calm them. Make them go home. It's too early for the Jem'Hadar to come out in force. The people must be made to know our presence was a voluntary decision by their leaders. It's in their best interests for us to help Cardassia be strong and independent of the Federations ways."

"Then perhaps you should tell them," Ross said sarcastically.

Gelnon almost seemed entertained by Ross' sudden burst of humor. "If I walked out there, I'd be dead before I took my third step. We certainly wouldn't want any harm to come to me, would we?" Ross considered that question for a moment, which quickly disappated Gelnon's good mood. "After all, without me, your liason to the Dominion, there would be no one here to keep them organized... under control. There's no telling what the Jem'Hadar would do without my leadership."

Prefect Tegril could only look at the floor. How could he have let himself get to this? How could he possibly get out? Despite his best efforts, he couldn't think of a way out that wouldn't put his family in jeapardy. But... perhaps someone across the street, being held hostage, might know. He'd have to find a way to talk to them. In the meantime, he'd need to stall and look cooperative. "I'll talk to them," he said reluctantly. "Maybe afterwards I could talk to the prisoners in the government building. If I could convince even a few to cooperate..."

"Yes, yes," Gelnon dismissed with a wave of his hand, turning back to the viewscreen. "Just make these people go away before they incite a full blown riot."

"I'll see what I can do," Tegril replied, hiding his smile. It wasn't much of a plan, but it was a beginning... and Gelnon was willing to go for it... for now, anyway. 


	19. Chapter 19

"Oh, my head," Captain Bolerov moaned. Opening one eye, he was able to discern he was lying on a bed in sickbay. His temples were throbbing and his memory was... was... apparently lacking in many areas such as; how did he get here?

Doctor Rass Dorrin walked up to him holding a hypospray. "I'm glad I finally get to hear something other than crying and moaning coming from you, Captain," he said flatly. He held up the hypospray. "This ought to help with the hangover."

"Hangover?" Bolerov was still groggy. He didn't remember drinking at all, let alone to excess. Besides, he never drank anything but vodka... and he could handle vodka. His old classmates used to tease him saying his mother weaned him on that instead of milk. "I couldn't have been drunk..."

"Like hell you weren't," Rass interrupted. He thrust the hypospray into the captain's neck, probably a bit harder than he should have. The impact made Bolerov wince in pain. Within moments, pain relieving fluid began coursing through the captain's bloodstream at the atomic level. "I have recordings of some of your ramblings while you've been here, if you'd like to hear them."

Bolerov tried to sit himself up, then, feeling a bit woozy, decided to take it more slowly and simply scooted himself further up his pillow. For the life of him, he couldn't remember anything. His last memory was of sitting on his couch with a glass of vodka and listening to Mozart. "I just don't remember any of what you're saying. I was in my room..."

"Captain," Rass interrupted thoughtfully, "you had a blood-alchohol ratio of point three eight. Most humans would have been unconscious with that." Rass had initially been quite irritated with the captain for allowing himself to get into such a condition and then actually take command of what was probably the most powerful weapon in Starfleet. It wasn't until several hours later, in a withdrawl induced stupor, that Bolerov inadvertently revealed some details of the final flight of the USS Valiant. Although he still didn't know all the details, he now knew enough to understand why this situation had sent Bolerov over the edge. Doctor Rass' main concern now was if the captain would ever be capable of returning to his command. Dorrin certainly didn't like the notion of permenantly retiring two starship captains in less than a year.

Andrei looked at the doctor incredulously. "I don't believe it..." but he did. Part of him did. The part of his mind that had been fighting the losing battle of his memories of the Dominion War knew it was true. He had been so tired for so long struggling to repress the memories he thought he had beaten. He turned his head to look at the ceiling. "What did I do?" He asked slowly.

Rass swallowed. Personally, he didn't want to admit what had happened. Professionall, he had to. It would, hopefully, go a long way towards convincing the captain to not fight his relief of duties. "Apparently... during an encounter with some Dominion ships, you attempted to announce to the crew we should abandon ship, then tried to take over the navigation console to fly our ship into one of them."

Oh, no, he thought. That was what he did aboard the Vigilant before... Those were the memories that took six months of counseling to repress. He turned back to the doctor. "What happened after that?"

"Well," Rass would have to tread lightly on this one. "it seems that Colonel Prichard slugged you to keep you from getting at the navigation controls."

Bolerov rubbed his chin. No wonder his mouth was sore. He would have to properly thank Prichard for that, but he wasn't sure whether to slug him back or shake his hand. "Then what?"

Rass shrugged. "Commander Kirk had you transported down here. He destroyed one ship and chased the other one off. I know we went back to Cardassia briefly, then we flew away. That's all I know. I've been slowly pumping alchohol out of your system for the past couple of hours."

"My god," Bolerov exclaimed. "How long have I been out?"

"You've been in and out of consciousness for the past five hours," Rass admitted with a gentle smile.

Bolerov slowly moved his legs to the side of the bed. "I have to get to the bridge and find out what's going on."

The doctor raised his hand towards him, forcing the captain to stop before he could sit up. "I'm afraid I can't let you do that, Sir."

Despite lingering weakness and pain, he slapped away the doctor's hand, then sat up. "What do you mean you can't let me do that?"

Rass took a deep breath. He figured Bolerov would take the news of his confinement a bit worse than Captain Velasquez. "Please, just sit back down. I haven't released you yet."

"I'm releasing myself, Doctor," Bolerov commanded, irritated. Just then, two marines walked into the room from the front office. Their looks were quite stern as they placed their hands on their weapons. The gesture instinctively made the captain sit back down. "What's going on?"

Rass looked down. "You've been relieved of command, Captain."

Bolerov couldn't believe what he was hearing. His first thought was to Kirk. They had never gotten along. From the beginning, he knew Stephen had been critical of his age. "By whose authority?" He asked angrily, waiting for Kirk's name to be mentioned.

"Mine," Doctor Rass replied flatly. Bolerov looked deflated as Rass walked over to the table behind the marines and returned with a data PADD. He thrust it at the captain. "and Fleet Admiral Kanegawa." Reading the official order on the PADD deflated Bolerov the rest of the way. His shoulders slumped in defeat. "Once I release you from here, you can go back to your quarters, but that's it. You're not to set foot on the bridge or engineering." Rass stated.

Bolerov looked up gruffly. "I can read the order, Doctor," he huffed. "Just release me so I can go back to my quarters."

"I will shortly," Rass countered. "But just so you know... I've already ordered the removal of the vodka from your quarters."

Andrei's eyes grew wide. The gall! "That is my property! You have no authority to do that!"

Rass got in his face and pointed to his chest. "Yes I do, and I did." Realizing he couldn't win, Bolerov sat back on the bed a bit. Rass took a step back and lowered his hand. "It's well within my authority as ship's doctor to have harmful, or potentially harmful substances removed from the ship. Now, just lay down and let me perform a few more tests. Then, you can go back to your quarters."

With one last look of defiance, Bolerov relented. "Fine." 


	20. Chapter 20

"Captain's log, stardate: 57026.5, Commander Kirk reporting. I guess I need to make some kind of entry here. Anyway, we're still about five hours away from Cardassian space. We're disguised as the ship we destroyed a couple hours ago. I'm probably going to get in trouble for this, but we're going to attempt to rescue the cardassians and the Federation personnel in addition to cleaning out the Jem'Hadar. Never let it be said we didn't accept challenges..."

"Ooo! I got it!" Tony yelled from his systems administration screen.

"Computer, pause recording," Kirk spoke into the chair speaker. He turned around. "What did you 'get'?"

Lieutenant Moreau spun around in his seat with a big grin. "How much do you love me?" He asked playfully. The statement caused most people on the bridge to turn around and look curiously except for T'Nia, who had heard banter between those two entirely too many times in her life to be put off by it.

Kirk smiled. Despite the 'proper chain of command' he had been forced to endure while Captain Bolerov was in command, Tony's informal nature was a pleasant change. He couldn't help but play along. "Well, I'm not ready to pick out rings or anything, but that could change. What have you got?" That received welcome chuckles from the bridge crew.

Tony pressed a few buttons on his panel. A wireframe model of the government building's third floor appeared on the screen above his station. "Well, thankfully, I was able to get a data burst of everything that was still intact on the Cardassian ship's computers before we left. I've been sifting through it for the past hour. Lookie what I found in their sensor archives."

Kirk got up and walked over to Tony's station and patted him on the back. He was genuinely impressed, even though he had completely written off the idea Tony would be able to find anything. "Outstanding work, Tone. I mean... this is good."

Tony folded his arms, looked up, and batted his eyes. "I want to honeymoon in Paris, Sweetie." He remarked with a broad smile. This was the kind of banter he had been wanting to have with his old friend, just like old times.

Kirk shot him a quick look that warned, "Don't go overboard." He then smacked him playfully on the back of the head and turned towards Richards. "Kenyon, using your own scans, can you determine the dimensions of this floor?"

Kenyon was enjoying the informality. It reminded him of his last assignment aboard the USS Ulysses. He couldn't help but smile. As much as he was impressed with Captain Bolerov's service record, his command style had left much to be desired. He nodded. "I should. Lieutenant Moreau, would you send that schematic to my console?"

With a quick half dozen menu selections with his finger, he announced, "It's on its way." Remembering Richards called him 'Lieutenant', he quickly added, "Sir."

Kenyon smiled. "Thank you." He spun around and began making the necessary calculations.

"What's on your mind, Commander?" Lieutenant Kelly asked. With things being temporarily calm in engineering, he had decided a half hour earlier, to pay a visit to his auxiliary station on the bridge to see what was up.

Stephen turned to face Tom. "Well, I've been running through a bunch of different scenarios in my head on how to get everyone out of that room. First, I was going to only transport our people out using the personnel transporters. But... that leaves the Cardassian prisoners helpless in a room full of Jem'Hadar. So, I thought about using the personnel transporters to get everyone BUT the Jem'Hadar out..."

Tom completed his thought. "But we'd never be able to get them all out at once, which means the Jem'Hadar start opening fire on whoever is left."

Kirk pointed at him and smiled. "Exactly. That led me to my third idea, which was to transport the Jem'Hadar out of the room FIRST. But... that won't work because there are too many of them. We'd have the same problem. THAT led me to my current idea, which is to use the cargo transporter to bring all the prisoners aboard at once. As long as the room isn't too big..."

Tom interrupted. "Um... one, small wrinkle. The Jem'Hadar are scattered through the room with the prisoners, aren't they?" Kirk nodded. "Yeah... the cargo transport beam won't discriminate like that. It'd bring everything aboard, including the Jem'Hadar."

"We can't have the transporter beam only bring aboard everyone BUT Jem'Hadar?" This was getting quite disappointing. Stephen was running out of ideas. At this rate, he may have to forsake the Cardassian prisoners after all.

Tom shook his head. "The beam's got a wide focus. It's meant for cargo... big stuff. We can focus personnel transport beams as narrow as you want, but not the cargo beam." He pursed his lips.

Kirk snapped his fingers. "Wait... we could bring everyone aboard, then immediately fire an electromagnetic pulse in the room. That would disable their weapons. Then, we could send in the Marines to mop up."

"You'd run the risk of another hostage situation if the Jem'Hadar were carrying daggers, which they usually do." T'Nia offered.

Kenyon turned around, looking disappointed. "It won't work, anyway." The group turned around to look at him. "The room's over fifty meters wide and sixty meters long. It'd take two, maybe three attempts with the cargo transporter to get everyone, if they're still scattered the way there were when we saw them."

Everyone looked deflated. Options were starting to run for Commander Kirk. "Okay," he started with a deep sigh, "I'm not quite ready to give up on this yet, but if we have to only rescue our people, and leave the Cardassians to fend for themselves, we will. Moreau, Richards, T'Nia, Kelly... get your relief people up here on the double and meet me in the conference room in ten minutes." He turned to Elaine. "Lieutenant Davies, get Colonel Prichard and ask him to join us in ten minutes."

"Aye, aye, Sir," She answered and turned back to her panel.

He looked at a questioning Commander Richards and shrugged. "I need options and I'm running out of ideas." 


	21. Chapter 21

Colonel Prichard wandered into the conference room several minutes late. His thin, middle aged frame was on display due to the green tank top and matching shorts he was wearing. He found an open seat and sat down. "Morning, everyone." He said indignantly. He sat down, noticing the curious looks on everyone's faces. "What?" He asked, shrugging. "Some of us DO sleep from time to time."

"We have been on a red alert status," T'Nia commented with a raised eyebrow.

"For the past six hours!" Prichard retorted.

"So... are you even aware of the Cardassian ship we destroyed an hour ago?" Tony asked.

Prichard looked at Tony incredulously. "Actually, no. It would appear communication is a bit of a problem on this ship." He turned his gaze to Commander Kirk.

This wasn't even close to how Stephen wanted this meeting to start. "I'm sorry, Colonel." He offered weakly. "Having another military group aboard still takes some getting used to."

Prichard wasn't convinced. His superiors warned him that Starfleet might wind up treating his men like typical security guards. He had been on guard about that ever since. Having half his starship contingent nearly shot apart didn't help. "I see," he said sarcastically. "But I'm here now. How come?"

Kirk took a deep breath. He wasn't expecting the Colonel to be difficult. "We have delegates being held hostage by the Dominion on Cardassia. We've been given orders to eliminate the Dominion threat before it can get itself fully established again. We've been told the lives of the Cardassians and our people are expendable." Stephen pressed a button on the computer display in front of him. A slowly rotating, three dimensional display of the government building appeared on the main screen on the wall behind Stephen's chair. He stood up, turned around, and pointed to the large room three floors underground. "We're pretty sure they're being held in this room."

Prichard squinted at the screen, then turned to Kirk. Sam was pretty confident he knew why Kirk was getting so many details on the holding locations, even though his mission apparently didn't involve rescuing them. His people weren't there to be used at Starfleet's whim. The fact Kirk would even call him in here to suggest such a thing was rude. Being a former Marine, Sam was hoping Stephen would have known better. "I suppose you're wanting us to go in there and get 'em out, right?" He sat back and folded his arms in defiant observation.

Ah, Kirk thought. That was the problem. He defensively raised his hands. "No, no... nothing like that." His look softened as Prichard gave him a look of utter surprise. "Look, Colonel... you're the most seasoned officer we have aboard. I just wanted your advice. I'm guessing you've been in situations like this."

Sam dropped his arms and offered a weak smile. "I see. That'd require me stop acting like a horse's ass and take my foot out of my mouth, wouldn't it?" He folded his hands on the oblong, wooden table to the chuckles of the people in the room. Prichard's smile grew a bit. "Alright... what have you got so far?"

Thinking he finally had Prichard on his side, Stephen continued. "Well, using our sensor mask, we can get pretty close to Cardassia without anyone confronting us. We can get the shields around the building down in pretty quick order. From there, we're kind of lost. We can get our five delegates out, but that leaves close to fifty Cardassian leaders at the mercy of armed Jem'Hadar, who are in the room."

"You'll forgive me, but so what?" Prichard asked. "These Cardies made their choice." He was part of the secondary invasion force after the Battle of Cardassia, when the Cardassian military turned sides. He led one of the Marine detachments that liberated Cardassia IV from the Dominion battalion stationed there. He had lost several good people that week. He had also lost several good people when he was still a Captain during the original Cardassian War over a decade earlier.

"Well, Sir... that's the thing." Kirk answered. "I don't think they're all involved. I think it was a coup. That's why there are so many from the Detapa Council being held prisoner with our people."

Prichard nodded. "I'll buy that. Next question... how come you're bucking orders? If your higher-ups say 'forget the hostages', how come you're not?" He leveled a suspicious eye at Stephen. He was pretty sure he knew the answer; he just wanted to hear it.

Kirk met his gaze. "Because we don't leave our people behind, Sir." Prichard practically beamed. "And... Cardassia will survive beyond this. They'll remember what we do here."

Sam nodded. "Good answer." Stephen knew what the colonel was doing. He was poking him to see where his loyalties really were... what his true reasons were. Apparently, the colonel agreed with his logic. Stephen sat back down.

The conversation, and underlying test, left the other occupants in the room dazed. Richards was the first to speak up. "Uh... we figured we can't get our people out by themselves, but we can't transport everyone out at the same time, either. We can't just beam out the Jem'Hadar, either. So, we can't think of a way to separate our people from them before they start shooting."

Kirk added, "We also have a small issue of Dominion ships that will become very unfriendly once we start shooting at the government building. Our transporter will be useless once we raise our shields."

Prichard scratched his unshaven chin. "I can see where this could be frustrating." He thought for several moments. "You're gonna have to knock 'em all out."

Kirk waved a finger. "You know, I'd thought of that. I pulled a stunt like that on a Romulan ship awhile back. The problem here is; anything we'd try would knock out everyone in the room. Unfortunately, the Jem'Hadar would recover from stun grenades or gas a lot faster than anyone else in the room."

"Yeah... I know." Prichard admitted. "You're gonna need us. Once everyone is sleeping, we'll need to get in there, deal with the Jem'Hadar before they wake up, and set up a perimeter. Then, you can beam everyone up."

Richards wasn't sure he liked this Marine colonel. He was over-confident, self-centered, and presumptuous. Even so, this might be their best bet, although, personally, he would have preferred if they had just stuck to the mission. He didn't WANT the Federation group to die, but there was a bigger issue; mainly, the resurgence of the Dominion in the alpha quadrant. "You know," he started cautiously, "that sounds great and all, but we can't get everyone out of there at once, and like we said, they'll start shooting as soon as we open fire on the building."

"I realize that, Commander," Prichard replied condescendingly. "We're gonna have to hold 'em off until you clean house. How long to you reckon that'll be?"

Kirk shrugged and looked at T'Nia. "What do you figure... fifteen, twenty minutes?"

She considered the question for several moments before answering. It really wasn't in her nature to make guesses. T'Nia would much prefer actually running the various scenarios through the computer and having it generate time estimations. Unfortunately for her comfort, Stephen Kirk was more spontaneous than that. Her observations were leading her to believe this Colonel Prichard was the same way. Perhaps it was the Marine experience. "I would say that is a reasonable estimation as long as the extent of their forces was what we observed prior to our departure."

"Okay," Prichard mumbled. He pointed to the screen. "How many baddies to you figure are in the room?"

"We counted fifteen. There could have been a few more off-screen."

Richards interrupted. "But I counted over two hundred in the viscinity; in the upper levels and across the street. They'll all be on you pretty quick."

Prichard winked at Kenyon. "Then I guess we'll have to set up our defenses pretty darn quick, huh?" He stood up and turned to Commander Kirk. "If you'll excuse me, I'm gonna head back to my people and draw up a plan that'll keep the baddies at bay for twenty minutes. You work on getting us out of there." He headed for the door.

"Colonel?" Stephen called out. Prichard turned around questioningly. "Will you be using your corvettes?"

"I'd like to," the colonel answered, "of course one of 'em's pretty shot up."

"I'll have our maintenance guys fix it up as best they can." Kirk nodded.

"I'd be much obliged." Prichard added with a smile. "I'll have our plan to you within two hours." He spun on his heel and left the room.

"Well, THAT was an interesting conversation," Tony commented once the door was closed.

"I really don't like his attitude," Kenyon added.

"He certainly seems... confident." T'Nia added.

"I felt about useless here," Tom Kelly commented.

"That's about to change," Kirk countered with a grin.

Tom nodded. "So I gathered. I'll have the maintenance folk start crawling over that marine ship as soon as I leave."

"I need you to oversee it personally, Tom." Kirk insisted.

Tom smiled. He took it as a compliment. "No worries. Am I allowed to cannibalize?"

Kirk nodded. "Just leave our primary systems alone." Tom nodded. "All right, people. I think we might actually have a plan." Even Stephen was impressed with that statement. He considered it for a moment. Yes... they really DID have a plan. He smiled. This was just crazy enough to work... maybe. 


	22. Chapter 22

The inspiring press conference Ross gave in front of the council chambers was anything but. In fact, at the conclusion, the crowd of over three hundred was even more infuriated than before. The various news agencies were practically gleeful with the crowd shots they were getting. It almost made him physically ill to see a group of his own people taking advantage of a horrible situation. Still, it had gotten the job done. He tried to calm the crowd, albeit unsuccessfully, and now he was walking into the government administration building to talk to the prisoners. Thankfully, Gelnon was preoccupied with making other plans of some sort with his First, so he wasn't all that interested in Ross' comings and goings. Gelnon making plans made Ross somewhat nervous, but since he wouldn't be allowed to contribute even if he was present, he decided to continue with his own plans.

Prefect Tegril made his way cautiously past the various guard positions on subfloor three. As he approached the hallway to his right, the Jem'Hadar guarding the door opened it and let him in. Once inside, the door was closed behind him. He looked around to see the faces of several fellow politicians who, just yesterday, he was having an animated discussion with on taxation. The fact he was the lone head of the new Cardassian Union, and no longer bound to such debates, offered him little comfort. He met with their eyes, which glared at him, convicting him further of his traitorous ways. There were roughly three dozen Cardassians in the room and almost twenty Jem'Hadar, in pairs. Most people were sitting on the floor. A couple were allowed to pace.

With all the people in the room, it took several uncomfortable moments to locate the Federation delegates. He found them on the opposite side of the room, near the back corner, sitting on the floor. With help from a pair of Jem'Hadar soldiers, he made his way to the far corner. Every step he took had a comment, sneer, or actual spit attached to it from the nearby prisoners. As he approached, he saw that Elim Gerak was sitting with them. The group of six eyed him suspiciously.

Gerak was the first to speak. "Don't tell me they finally threw you in here as well. I always thought the Dominion rewarded loyalty." His gaze was icy and intense, even for Gerak.

Ross shook his head. What had he been thinking? He had no plan. He had no ideas. He truly didn't know what to do. Now, he found himself in a room filled with people who, if given three seconds, would dismember him. "I... just... wanted to talk." He answered slowly.

Gerak smiled sarcastically. "Oh, I'm sorry... I'm afraid our traitorous vermin discussion ended just a few moments ago. You'll have to come back tomorrow." He folded his arms. To Gerak's mild surprise, the nearby Jem'Hadar guards smiled.

It was then that Ross noticed all other discussions in the room had ceased. Every eye and ear was on him, including the guards. Even IF he had an idea, there was no way he could share it without everyone hearing it. Besides, even if he had an idea to share, there was obviously no way any one would listen to him... well, nobody from Cardassia. Ross' eyes turned from Garek to Admiral Picard. "I am truly sorry that you and your people were caught up in all this."

Gerak scoffed.

Picard considered his words as well as his expression. For a moment, Jean Luc could actually see regret on Tegril's face. "While I appreciate the sentiment, I'm sure we would all feel better if we knew something was being done to rectify the situation. We've been here for several hours without any contact from the outside, or even food or water."

Tegril was geniunely surprised. "Oh?" He looked at the Jem'Hadar near him, who carelessly turned back towards each other and began talking. "I'll have that fixed as soon as I can. I had no idea." Ross' heart raced. With the guards talking among themselves, he had a chance to at least speak his peace. "I'm trying to get everyone released, but..." hopefully someone would pick up on what he was about to say. "I'm having difficulty arranging it on my own." He shot Picard a quick, desperate look.

Jean Luc picked up on it immediately. "I see... the mantle of leadership can seem a lonely burden to bear at times." He nudged Gerak. "Perhaps you know of someone who could help Ross negotiate our release?"

Gerak, realizing what was being said, refused to trust Tegril. "Why? So you could have him thrown in here with us? Publically executed, perhaps? Is this some way of securing your position with them?" Gerak was becoming irate and raised his voice.

"Gerak..." Picard insisted, attempting to quiet the man. Certainly, Tegril's motives and even his sincerity may not be truthful, but any form of counteroffensive would have to be staged from the outside. Tegril was their only, albeit desperate, option.

The commotion caused the Jem'Hadar to cease their discussions and turn back towards the group. Gerak stood to his full height and stared Tegril straight in the face. "Forget it, Admiral," he answered without looking away, "Whatever plans Ross may have for us, I don't know... but I'll be damned if I'm going to willingly drag anyone else in on it." His glare became even more intense as a look of defeat crossed Tegril's face. "You'll have to look somewhere else to find someone as spineless as yourself, Tegril. The only people you'll find here are patriots."

That statement brought about a round of cheers from the Cardassian prisoners who raised their hands in victory. The Jem'Hadar instinctively pointed their weapons at the ceiling and began firing, warning the crowd to settle down. In defiance, several of the Cardassian military officers lunged themselves at their captors. A brief, but intense fight broke out, causing the Jem'Hadar to quickly move to the walls of the room. They quickly opened fire on the Cardassian troublemakers, knocking them to the ground unconscious. Gerak took the chaotic opportunity to slug Tegril in the jaw as hard as he could. The blow caused Tegril to stumble back and sit down on the floor, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth.

Gerak's action was rewarded by a stun beam to the chest, sending him flying across the room into a handful of other surprised Cardassians. With two Jem'Hadar slightly wounded and eight Cardassians unconscious, order was quickly restored. Four guards carefully made their way to the stunned Tegril and helped him up. Tegril staggered out of the room, wiping the blood on his shirtsleeve, dejected. He had never felt so lost and helpless in his life. 


	23. Chapter 23

The bridge of the Warlord was bathed in red, the alert siren recently silenced by order of Commander Kirk. The image of a recently decloaked Dominion attack fighter filled the main viewscreen. Behind the commander, Lieutenant Davies was ascertaining a communication sent from the fighter. She put her earpiece down and turned to face the back of the command chair. Stephen had already partly turned around to see her through the deck rail. "No hostile overtones, Commander," she answered. "They just want to know if anyone on our ship can hear them."

Kirk turned the other direction to face Lieutenant Moreau. "Our sensor mask says the communications antenna is gone, right?" Tony nodded. "Then why are these idiots trying to communicate with us? It should be pretty obvious we can't communicate back." He shook his head.

"Perhaps they're hoping they're close enough that a personal communicator would pick them up," Elaine offered with a shrug. Her console beeped again. She quickly spun around and picked up her earpiece. The bridgecrew watched pensively as she listened to another transmission. Her eyes grew wide as she turned back around. "They said if anyone can hear them, they're about to transport a group aboard into our transporter room."

"Our transporter room?" Kirk quoted. Stephen, Tony, and Kenyon suddenly had the same thought. "Uh, oh," Kirk commented, reaching for his comm badge.

"Our transporter room isn't our transporter room," Tony added, turning back to his console. He brought up a virtual image of the Cardassian ship their sensors were impersonating.

"Crap," Kenyon commented, bringing out the schematics of the Warlord on his computer. He overlaid the image of the Cardassian ship over the Warlord.

"What's going on?" Elaine asked curiously.

"Where are they going to show up?" Kirk asked Richards quickly. He pressed his comm badge. "Bridge to Colonel Prichard, we have an intruder alert."

"Deck eight, section eleven," Richards replied.

"How the hell did that happen?" Prichard's voice popped over Kirk's comm badge.

"Our shields were down to conserve energy. They're on deck eight, section eleven."

"I'll have a team there in ninety seconds. Prichard out."

Kirk turned his attention to Elaine. "Elaine, scramble that ships transmissions... now!" He turned to T'Nia. "Target that ship with pulse phasers and fire when you have a solution."

"Aye, aye, Sir." Elaine replied. Still not quite sure what was going on, she targeted the plate-with-handles shaped ship in front of them and activated the scattering field.

T'Nia quickly locked a pair of phaser emitters on the small Dominion ship. "Am I disabling or destroying it, Sir?" She asked cooly.

"Destroy it!" Stephen insisted. As if the ship heard Kirk's command, it reoriented itself to face the Warlord. A pair of purple pinpoints appeared to either side of its nose.

That was as close as it would get to firing, however. Four quick bursts of red dashes launched from a red ring along the bottom of the saucer section. The first two bursts were enough to remove the faint glow of the ship's shields from view. The final two slammed full force into the disk, cutting it in half. The force of the impact was sufficient to overload its power source, causing the ship to explode in a ball of brilliant yellow and blue. "Target destroyed, Sir." T'Nia responded.

"They beamed three Jem'Hadar aboard, Sir!" Kenyon exclaimed. "They're in the main hallway of section eleven."

Kirk pounded the arm of his seat. "Rats! We're too late. Signal the intruder alert, Davies!" Within moments, the alert signal was back on adding the words 'Intruder alert' in between the screeches.

Kenyon suddenly sat back in his seat and stared at his display in disgust. "This is going to get ugly." He commented.

All eyes turned on him. "What's happening?" Stephen asked.

Kenyon shook his head and turned around to face the crew. "One materialized halfway into the wall. He did within seconds. The second one partly materialized in the opposite wall. He's still alive, but it looks like his right arm is stuck inside the wall structure. The third one just disappeared from the sensors. I just noticed a change in the hallway shield energy pattern around the intruders. I think he just walked through it."

Stephen rolled his eyes. Apparently, the adjustments to the shields weren't sufficient to keep the Jem'Hadar from penetrating them. The Starfleet engineers were wrong. "Did the EMP go off?"

Commander Richards nodded. "Yeah... at least their guns and computers won't work."

"No doubt he will attempt to sabotage the ship somehow. Even without a weapon, a Jam'Hadar soldier is still quite formidible." T'Nia added.

Kirk reached for his comm badge again. "Just what I always wanted," he said sarcastically. "a Jem'Hadar running around the ship." He tapped his comm badge. "Kirk to Colonel Prichard... things just got complicated." 


	24. Chapter 24

The door chime rang as Colonel Prichard was concluding his conversation with Commander Kirk. Things had taken a severe downturn in their plans. This was definately a sloppy operation. If the Marines had been in charge, this would never have happened. The Jem'Hadar ship would have been destroyed as soon as it was identified. Still, such discussions would be had a later date. Right now, there was a shrouded Jem'Hadar soldier on board... somewhere... trying to do god-knows-what. "Come!" Prichard yelled at the door. His face turned back forward as he looked at the comm badge he was holding. "All right, Commander. I'll get the guys and gals together. We'll find him. Prichard ou.."

There was some muffled communication on the other end of the comm badge, followed by Kirk responding, "You've GOT to be kidding."

Through the entry door came two people. A tall, broad-shouldered man walked in barefoot and with partly unbuttoned fatigues. Behind him was a similarly tall, muscular woman with short, red hair dressed in green shorts and a tank top. They both had questioning looks on them as the door slid shut behind them. Prichard held his pointer finger towards them as they approached to keep them silent. "What's going on, Commander? Something else I should know about?"

Kirk let out an exasperated sigh. "Yes, Sir. It would seem the Jem'Hadar whose arm was caught in the wall has just disappeared from our sensors, too."

Prichard cast a sideways glance at the comm badge, as though somehow, Stephen would see it. "You mean he got free?"

"Well, most of him, anyway." Came the reply. "His arm's still in the wall."

Prichard considered that statement for a moment, blinked and shook his head. He had to admire the Jem'Hadar's high pain threshold. "Alrighty, I count two dead men walkin'. Confirmed?"

"Confirmed, Colonel."

The recently arrived Captain Trace Connor and Lieutenant Wilma Thackery looked at each other questioningly for a moment before Trace spoke. "Well, that answers that question."

Thackery nodded. "This is a real red alert this time."

Prichard waved them silent. "Alright, Commander. Lock down the bridge, secondary bridge, engineering, transporters and any other room that's got people in it. Keep an eye on any computer usage that accesses ship schematics, directions, whatever. We'll hunt 'em down. Prichard out." He tapped his comm badge, then turned to his senior officers. His door chime rang again. "Come in, guys." He spoke at the door.

It opened to reveal a slender vulcan male dressed immaculately in fatigues followed by a mediumly built human of equal slender stature sweating through his workout sweats. He was breathing heavily.

"Sparing match, Frosty?" Prichard asked of the slender human. He nodded breathlessly. "Did you win?" Prichard questioned light-heartedly.

"I always do," Lieutenant O'Shea replied with a wink, still catching his breath.

Prichard smiled wryly. "You should set the difficulty setting higher than one next time." He added a wink of his own, to the laughter of almost everyone else in the room. 

The noted exception, of course, was the vulcan, Captain Tonok. He simply gazed at the group with a raised eyebrow. "Is there a problem that requires Marine assistance?" he asked calmly.

Prichard's smile quickly vanished as he went back into business mode. "Yeah. I need y'all to assemble your squads pronto. Gear 'em up for a bug hunt. We got a pair of Jem'Hadar loose on the ship. Warlord had a run-in with a patrol ship, who beamed over a strike team before their ship was destroyed. Computer... display deck plans for USS Warlord."

Within moments, a profile of the Warlord appeared on the wall-mounted computer display. Prichard pointed to Captain Connor. "Ironhide, I want your two teams on decks two and three." He pointed to Lieutenant Thackery. "Lucky, take your teams on four, five, and seven. I'll lock down this area myself." He then pointed to Lieutenant O'Shea. "Frosty, take your teams and scour eight, nine, and ten." Finally, he pointed to Captain Tonok. "Ice, your teams get eleven and twelve. They appeared on deck four, so stay sharp. All the sensitive areas are already being locked down. Let's do this by the numbers, people. Check-ins at staggered five minute intervals. Teams all walk together... and be ready for anything. With their major targets of opportunity cut off, there's no telling where they'll go."

Captain Connor spoke up. "Did I hear right? Are they shrouded?"

Prichard nodded. "Yep. They're invisible to the naked eye and shields won't hold 'em. So... take your guns, your goggles, and your talcum powder. Alright, people... hunt 'em down! Dismissed. Count off as you leave. Those are your intervals."

With that, the four left counting off 'one', 'two', 'three', and 'four' as they left. The hunt began. 


	25. Chapter 25

Lieutenant Davies turned to face Commander Kirk. "Commander, Colonel Prichard is requesting permission to relay his communications with his teams through the bridge so you can hear what's going on."

Kirk nodded. "Yeah... put it on the overhead speakers."

Elaine deftly pressed a number of buttons on her control panel, then removed her earpiece. "Go ahead, Colonel." She said aloud.

The overhead speaker popped. "Thank you, Lieutenant. Lucky, give your update."

Another voice, a female one, followed his, sounding more distant, as if from within a tunnel. "Roger that. Charlie Team is at the point of transport. They've got one body embedded in a wall. There's a dismembered arm stuck in the opposing wall. They also found a dead crewman down the hall. He's a yellow shirt. His comm badge is missing and his tricorder holster is empty. There's a trail of light gray drops on the floor. It's the one-armed bandit. They're following it now."

Prichard's voice chimed in. "Thanks for the update, Lieutenant. Your next update is in five. Prichard out." There was a momentary pause. "Commander Kirk, if you don't mind, I'd like to keep you in the loop on everything going on."

Kirk looked up at the speaker. "Thanks. I appreciate that. I have to admit, I'm not thrilled that the... one armed bandit got a communicator and a tricorder."

"Yeah," Prichard replied. "With that, they won't need to use the computers to figure their way around the ship."

A voice interrupted them. "Colonel, this is Connor. My teams are drawing a blank right now."

"Understood." Prichard's voice replied. "Your next update's in five. Prichard out."

Commander Richards, who had been scouring the sensor logs looking for Jem'Hadar lifesigns, changed it over to detect crewmen. He wasn't surprised to see the readings of the dead crewman on deck four. He was surprised when another dead crewman registered on deck eight. He spoke up exitedly. "Commander!" Recapturing his composure, he started over. "Commander, I've got another dead crewman on deck eight, section four... Ensign Kate Posey."

Kirk stared at Richards dispondently. It was happening again. Once again, he found himself in command of the ship. Once again, people were dying. He shook his head in frustration. "Colonel," he looked back up at the speaker again, "did you..."

"I heard it," Prichard interrupted. "Frosty, this is Prichard."

"O'Shea here," the disembodied Irish voice replied.

"Get your team on deck eight over to section four on the double. We've got a casualty there."

"Yes, Sir!" The voice replied loudly.

Stephen suddenly had a thought. He turned back to Elaine. "Davies, with two personal communicators, how easy would it be to set up a secure connection between the two?"

She shrugged. "If they had the right tools, it would be pretty easy." Then, it dawned on her what the commander was implying. She gasped. "They'd be able to communicate with each other and we wouldn't know about it."

"How the hell did these things get aboard this ship?" Prichard asked angrily.

Kirk dismissed him with a wave of his hand. "We can discuss that later, Colonel." Stephen was suddenly grateful the colonel didn't see him. "Elaine, can you filter out the other transmissions on this ship and just try to focus in on them? You may not be able to figure out what they're saying..."

She completed his sentence with a finger snap. "... but I might be able to figure out where they talking from." She spun around, thankful she didn't have to feel helpless any more. "I'll get right on it." Her fingers began moving about feverishly across her control panel.

The speaker popped again. "Colonel, this is O'Shea. Henderson's team found the body. It's a human female in her late twenties. She was from engineering. There was a knife wound in the back and another in the back of the neck. The body's pretty fresh... not more than ten minutes old."

Prichard's voice followed. "Does she have her comm badge? How about a tricorder?"

There was an interminable silence as, presumably, O'Shea relayed the question to his team. Stephen nervously rubbed his hands together. Eventually, O'Shea's voice answered. "Her communicator's missing. They don't see a tricorder holster, but if she had one, it's gone now."

"Thanks, Frosty." Prichard replied. "Return to your regular reporting interval. Prichard out." There was another momentary pause. "Commander, this is starting to get ugly."

Kirk took several deep breaths and said a small prayer for calm and wisdom under his breath. He reopened his eyes and turned to Richards. "Commander," he started calmly, "do we have any other crew wandering the halls?"

Richards spun back around and tapped several buttons on his console, then nodded. "Yeah, a few."

Kirk nodded. "Get their identities to Elaine." He turned to face her. She was still working furiously to filter out the background communication. "Davies, I need you to hold what you're working on for a sec. Get Kenyon's list of crew-who-can't-take-an-order and tell them to get somewhere secure."

Having turned around to face her commander, she nodded. "Yes, Sir."

With that, Stephen walked towards the back of the bridge and opened a small panel on the wall next to the systems administration console, prompting a confused look from Lieutenant Moreau. Behind the opened panel were four hand phasers. Stephen retrieved one, then closed the panel. Now, the entire bridge crew looked at him curiously. "Whatcha doing, Steve?" Tony asked nervously.

Kirk adjusted the settings on his phaser, then looked at his crew. "I'm not going to just stand here while my crew is killed. I'm going down there to help with the hunt." Tony opened his mouth as if to protest, but Stephen raised his hand to him, silencing him. He turned to Commander Richards. "Kenyon, you have the bridge. Get us back on course to Cardassia. We need to complete our mission. I'll be back as soon as I can." Kirk turned to the turbolift and pressed a series of buttons on the panel next to it. "Make sure you lock down this turbolift again once I'm gone." He added as the doors slid open with a hiss.

Richards stood up quickly. "Commander," he called out causing Stephen to stop and look back. "Do you really think it's wise for the most senior officer to go chasing off after a couple of invisible intruders right before a battle?"

Kirk thought for a moment. His mind drifted back to the memorial services for the eight people who had died during the fight with the Rapier. He wasn't looking forward to attending two more. If he had anything to say about it, there wouldn't be a third. "No, it's not," he finally admitted, "but it's something I have to do."

Without another word, Kirk stepped into the turbolift. The doors slid shut behind him. 


End file.
